EAST Lancashire victims of the collapse of Christmas hamper company Farepak have been left “deeply disappointed” that a legal challenge against the firm’s former directors has been abandoned.
The government’s Insolvency Service had gone to the High Court last month to try to get Farepak’s former bosses barred from being company directors.
It said it had now abandoned the case after considering the evidence.
Clitheroe’s Susan Walmsley, who was one of 10 Tesco workers in the town and their friends who lost between £200 and £500 each in the collapse, said: “I am very angry.
“Whilst we lost hundreds of pounds each, the directors can now go and run another company and earn thousands.
“They didn’t do a very good job of running Farepak and I don’t think they should be allowed to run another company in view of their track record.
“My partner and I had saved £300 to have a good Christmas with our one-year-old daughter when it happened.”
Blackburn MP Jack Straw and East Lancashire Credit Union worker David McMullan were involved in efforts to assist those left without savings for presents when the company went into administration in October 2006, leaving 116,000 customers with losses of £37m.
Mr Straw, who said several of his constituents had been hit, added: “I am deeply disappointed and so will be those people in my constituency who were affected.
“They lost their savings and had their Christmases ruined.”
David McMullan, who worked for several credit unions in Rossendale and across East Lancashire at the time, said: “Dozens of our clients were affected by the Farepak collapse and we were heavily involved in trying to help them.
“They will be deeply disappointed at this decision, as I am. It seems too often that those responsible for, at the very least, are not held responsible for what happens as a consequence of their actions.”
The Insolvency Service, which is part of the department headed by Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable, wanted former bosses at Farepak, and its parent firm, disqualified from being company directors.
Former bosses contested disqualification applications.
Sir Clive Thompson, a former president of the Confederation of British Industry and one of the former Farepak bosses targeted, said he was “extremely surprised” that Mr Cable had launched the action.
