New campaign as Farepak customer losses put at £37m

Nearly 120,000 Farepak customers have been left a total of £36.9 million out of pocket five years after the hamper company’s collapse, campaigners yesterday said.

The firm, which allowed people to spread the cost of Christmas food and presents, went bust on 13 October, 2006, with customers losing an average of £400. Victims have been told they will receive 15p for every pound owed.

The Farepak Victims Committee (FVC) will mark the fifth anniversary by launching an online petition to demand the remaining £36.9m is repaid and those responsible are held to account. The group needs 100,000 signatures to prompt a discussion in the House of Commons.

Louise McDaid, chair of the FVC, said: “Surely we deserve some answers as to why, five years on, we have still not received justice?”

Farepak, which was set up in 1969, allowed customers to pay in money monthly to secure hamper deliveries at Christmas.

But thousands of families were told not to expect deliveries when the company appointed the professional services firm BDO Stoy Hayward as administrator in October 2006.