Carillion fat cats WONT get payouts

FAT cats at Carillion will no longer be entitled to their payouts following a public outcry.

Bosses including former chief executive Richard Howson were due to continue receiving payments despite the construction and outsourcing firm going into liquidation on Monday owing around £3billion.

Mr Howson stepped down last July but as part of his departure deal Carillion agreed to keep paying him a £660,000 salary and £28,000 in benefits until this October.

Former finance chief Zafar Khan, 49, who left Carillion in September, was due to receive £425,000 in base salary for 12 months. Interim chief executive Keith Cochrane was due to be paid his £750,000 salary until July, despite planning to leave the company next month.

But yesterday the Insolvency Service said: ‘Any bonus payment to directors, beyond the liquidation date, has been stopped, and this includes the severance payments which were being paid to some senior executives who left the company.’

Theresa May has told MPs an inquiry into Carillion’s collapse would be fast-tracked and could lead to bonus payments being clawed back from directors.

She added: ‘Where those payments are unlawful or unjustified, the Official Receiver has the powers to take action to recover those payments.’

Banks forced Carillion to stop payments into its pension fund as the firm teetered on the brink. Natwest, HSBC, Barclays, Santander and Lloyds loaned the builder an extra £140million in October as it desperately fought for survival.

But court documents show that, as a condition, Carillion agreed to stop reducing its pension deficit for up to eight months. Its 28,500 scheme members have now become the responsibility of the Pension Protection Fund.