More shame for billionaire businessman Sir Philip Green as he is spotted using old Nokia phone
Topshop tycoon uses 12-year-old mobile during parliament hearing where he apologises for collapse of BHS
SUNTANNED Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green was in Westminster today to apologise for the collapse of BHS – and he took his very old phone with him.
As he arrived at a select committee hearing he can be seen in his car tapping on an old Nokia 6010i mobile.
And during his appearance in parliament he gets out the handset to check his messages.
It’s not clear whether the billionaire is just a big fan of Snake 2 or likes the way the phone battery lasts for longer than a day.
But some BHS staff may never remember seeing the phone, which was released in 2004.
Today he finally apologised to them for the collapse of the high street store and admitted the pensions disaster is his fault.
He said: “I was honest, hard-working and nothing is more sad than how this has ended and I hope during the morning we will hear there's certainly no intent at all on my part for anything to be like this and it didn't need to be like this and I just want to apologise to all the BHS people.
He added, if there had been a mistake in his dealings it was that he had a "too strong emotional tie" to BHS which he presided over for 15 years.
At the select committee he sought to reassure the 20,000 current and former staff of the BHS pension scheme that "we want to find a solution" and pledged a £275m cash injection into the fund.
But he tried to wriggle out of taking responsibility for the pension scheme's changing fortunes - running at a surplus when he arrived to a deficit a few years later.
During the tense six-hour hearing the retail mogul became increasingly irate and confessed selling BHS to playboy former racing driver Dominic Chappell was not a wise idea.
He said: "There have been some stupid, stupid idiotic mistakes."
Despite having previously backed Mr Chappell as "a bloke doing a good job" he U-turned saying he lived in "fantasy land".
He said: "What happened was sad. I'm not a liar. Unfortunately we found the wrong guy.
"Whether we were misled or duped, a lot of people accepted this guy at face value - lawyers, accountant, banks."
Asked why he sold to bankrupt Mr Chappell, he said: “Walt Disney and HJ Heinz were made bankrupt.
“Businessmen go bankrupt from time to time.”