SO VULGAR (EVEN FOR YOU, SIR GREEDY)
Disgraced BHS boss sprays champagne over guests at luxury party
SIR Philip Green has been blasted for taking part in a “champagne shower”.
The ex-BHS boss sprayed guests at a party in Greece.
Labour’s Frank Field said: “It is vulgar and insulting to BHS workers who lost jobs.”
FOOTAGE of shamed tycoon Philip Green dousing partygoers with expensive champagne has triggered fresh anger among ex-BHS workers.
The billionaire, dubbed Sir Philip Greed, appeared drenched as he joined other revellers at a luxury beachside bar on the Greek island of Mykonos.
Critics renewed calls for Green, who sold department store BHS to investors led by former bankrupt Dominic Chappell, to be stripped of his knighthood.
The tycoon, 65, hopes to keep his title after agreeing earlier this year to cough up £363million to plug a hole in the BHS pension fund. It followed a settlement with the Pensions Regulator. But ex-BHS employee Lin MacMillan, 62, said: “He’s debased the honours system.” She added: “I have been told that my pension will go up by just £34 a year. That wouldn’t even buy one of Sir Philip’s bottles of champagne.” Some 11,000 staff lost their jobs when BHS collapsed just over a year ago. Frank Field MP, who co-led a Commons probe into the demise of the firm, said of Green’s antics: “It is as vulgar as it is insulting to the pensioners and the workers who lost their jobs.” He added: “I can understand what he is doing. He is celebrating his trouncing of the Pensions Regulator.” Mr Field also revealed to the Mirror he aimed to have another Commons debate on the subject. He refused to go into detail about the
exact nature of the debate at this stage, but it is set to prove a fresh embarrassment for Green, who had counted on moving on with his life.
He certainly appeared to have done so in the event in the film, which appeared on social media described as a champagne shower.
The footage was said to have been taken recently at the high-end Nammos beach bar and restaurant, which lists singer Mariah Carey, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal and model Liz Hurley among its customers.
Its drinks menu includes a jeroboam of Veuve Clicquot champagne for more than £700 and a limited edition jeroboam of Cristal champagne for more than £70,000.
The video shows tables packed with standard-size bottles of Veuve Clicquot, with more boxes lined up nearby. Nearby, women dance on tables as partygoers empty bottles of champagne in all directions.
At one stage Green, dressed in a baseball cap, white T-shirt and shorts, sprays another man.
It is not the first time the tycoon, who is not seen drinking on the video, has been pictured spraying champagne at a party on holiday.
Photos emerged last September of the fatcat dousing himself and other partygoers in Mykonos.
Green and his wife Lady Tina, whose daughter Chloe has been partying in Barbados recently, are currently cruising aboard their luxury £100million superyacht Lionheart.
The couple were pictured with pals at Psarou Beach resort in Mykonos earlier this week. Lionheart has since moved on, moored off Skiathos.
Green’s pension deal ensured that the BHS scheme did not end up in the Pension Protection Fund. The move prevented many former BHS workers losing a potential 10% of their pension.
But they will still get less in retirement than under the old scheme.
Ms MacMillan, who lives in central Scotland, said her pension income has been frozen for the past two years. She added of billionaire Green: “He might want to put the whole thing behind him, but we can’t.
“I suspect there are former BHS workers out there who are still struggling to find jobs and people who rely on their BHS pension.”
Another former employee of the department store, Hannah Cullen, said of Green’s champagne antics: “Nothing surprises me about Philip Green nowadays.
“He is in no way remorseful. Partying like this is hugely insensitive.”
And she joined those calling for the tycoon to still lose his knighthood, adding: “Remember that 11,000 people lost their jobs.”
Any decision on Green’s knighthood is expected to be delayed until the outcome of separate investigations in the demise of BHS. Administrators have already filed reports to the Insolvency Service and the Department for Business, Innovations and Skills.
Sources say the Insolvency Service probe is one of the biggest it has ever had to undertake.
Meanwhile, liquidators for BHS have begun legal action against Green’s Arcadia group.
FRP Advisory, which is handling the liquidation of the department store, has previously said it was sifting through a “vast quantity of data”.
The liquidators’ job is to recover as much money as possible for creditors owed funds when BHS collapsed.
SHB Realisations, the name given to BHS in liquidation, is named as the claimant in documents lodged at the High Court against Arcadia, which also owns stores including Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge.