SIBLING IN THE SHADOWS

THERE were many days when John Ashley would turn up at Sports Direct wearing a giant lumberjack-style shirt and baggy trousers – which he’d spend his day hoiking up.

It seemed John, older brother of Mike, always struggled to fill big shoes.

The pair grew up together in a modest bungalow in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

While Mike set about building a sportswear empire, John took a computing degree, but was hired as head of IT by his little bro in 1989.

Rarely seen, and never photographed, he is thought to have lived in a house with Mike, close to the Lion Hotel in Worksop where Sports Direct held meetings.

When the firm floated in 2007, John picked up £150,000 a year, as well as bonuses, and sometimes made use of company credit cards and his younger brother’s helicopter.

Dogged by accusations of nepotism, the 56-year-old left in 2015 only to be dragged into a scandal about the delivery firm he set up.

Now John has returned to Sports Direct, and again has dragged his younger brother into a controversy.