Scottish Daily Mail

I’m the best man for the job!

The collapse of HBOS is still being probed. But as he takes over at restaurant chain, shamed ex-bank chief Andy Hornby insists . . .

- by Matt Oliver

THE disgraced former chief executive of HBOS insists he is ready to run a listed company again despite a probe by City regulators hanging over him.

Andy Hornby, who has taken the helm at The Restaurant Group, brushed aside concerns he was not fit and proper for the job, and claimed he had a track record of delivering value for shareholde­rs.

His comments came despite his record at HBOS, where shares collapsed on his watch during the financial crisis before the bank was taken over by Lloyds and rescued by the taxpayer.

A damning report by Parliament said the 52-year-old, who is now on a package worth up to £4m a year at The Restaurant Group, bore primary responsibi­lity for what happened.

An investigat­ion by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) into senior managers at HBOS is also still live. It could result in individual­s being banned from working in finance.

When asked about concerns surroundin­g his suitabilit­y to be boss, Hornby

(pictured) replied: ‘People can have their views. I am focused on The Restaurant Group and delivering value.’

Debbie Hewitt, the group’s chairman, claimed he was ‘an outstandin­gly talented individual’ who had created ‘incredible shareholde­r value in businesses he had worked at’ since HBOS.

She said: ‘We extensivel­y referenced and did due diligence on him and we were well aware of his background. We are feeling very good about the appointmen­t.’

Hornby took charge of HBOS in 2006, becoming the youngest ever boss of a High Street lender.

But along with former chairman Lord Stevenson and previous chief executive James Crosby, he was named by the Parliament­ary Commission on Banking Standards as being one of the key figures responsibl­e for the bank’s collapse two years later.

The commission accused the bank of ‘reckless’ lending policies and said Hornby proved ‘unable or unwilling to change course’.

It urged regulators to consider whether Hornby, Stevenson and Crosby ‘should be barred from undertakin­g any role in the financial sector’. Hornby has also come under fire over the fraud at HBOS’s Reading branch, when a gang of criminal bankers deliberate­ly wrecked small businesses and spent the proceeds on prostitute­s, holidays and luxury goods.

Managers at the lender failed to alert the authoritie­s about their suspicions for two years.

Although Hornby was not named in an FCA report on the scandal, the disaster and cover-up happened on his watch.

He went on to lucrative executive roles at pharmacy chain Alliance Boots and bookmaker Coral, which merged with Ladbrokes before being taken over by GVC. Last night Nikki Turner, a victim who runs the SME Alliance campaign group to help small businesses hurt by banks, said Hornby should not have been appointed.

She said: ‘The HBOS catastroph­e affected thousands of people and is still causing misery for many. Every time a catastroph­e like this happens, the people most responsibl­e seem to swan off to nice new jobs with great big pensions leaving chaos in their wake.

‘It is inappropri­ate for people who have failed and caused disaster for so many others to be rewarded. He may very well end up being successful but there must have been plenty of other candidates out there – it really does not send a good message.’

Yesterday, The Restaurant Group, when asked for evidence of Hornby creating shareholde­r value, pointed to remarks made by GVC bosses when he left. They claimed he was ‘instrument­al in the turnaround and growth of the Ladbrokes Coral businesses’.

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