John Button found dead

Not much new on this thread in recent months ,to remind you all I only got involved when it was looking like from the direction the thread was going,I was about to be tarred with the same brush as John Button and I certainly hadn’t sat on this thing for 30 odd years to end up being bracketed with what he got up to at Autoconti. When the whole thing erupted at Autoconti in 1979/1980 there were plenty of people in the Trowbridge/ Frome area affected. Customers ,employees, creditors etc. For whatever reason they haven’t contributed to this debate, maybe some are simply unaware the issue has surfaced again? Or don’t want to get involved? Whatever!

People have asked me what exactly did the Autoconti episode cost me , well in terms of stress, worry, focus,time etc on myself and my family at the time , immense An extremely tense and miserable time and most likely for many of those others involved too. Financially? If you take my initial investment and trading losses on the business plus the loss of the freehold benefit (sold to pay off the bank), and guarantees I was settling several years later plus lawyers fees, then about 100k in 70’s/80’s money wouldn’t be far out .Not money inherited from daddy, it had been built up by damn hard work over several years. Anyway what’s that in today’s money? Well one website says it’s 600k , knock off say a very generous 100k at todays for any discounts/benefits I might have accrued in the 4 years of trading ,that leaves 500k. Then of course there is the loss of potential long term value of a plumb VW/Audi Franchise , most such dealerships survive and prosper over the years , assuming they don’t have an MD running it as a personal fiefdom. If Autoconti had just expanded at the rate of inflation it would be turning over approx 5 million today and at 5% nett making around 250 k bottom line. That would very conservatively value the business at around 2 million today . Assuming I still owned 50% of Autoconti then I could be a million light here plus 500k on the original investment etc, total 1.5 mill. That’s just little me, don’t forget the other poor sods involved, employees who lost their jobs after thinking they had a long term career ,small creditors left whistling , those customers who bought a new car and found they were the second owner to Autoconti when they eventually got the reg doc (a neat little ruse to delay paying the stocking finance company on point of sale) . Add all that in, you may as well round it up to 2 million like they do the sums in F1. That’s what it’s eventually cost everyone involved by now, in my estimation.

So if this missive can be turned into an open ‘letter’ to Button then I would suggest to him this is an opportunity in his ‘twilight years’ to wipe the slate clean , now he appears to have the means.
Make some amends for that 2 million lost that your actions led to ,it’s never too late.!
After all some people I hear save that much in tax every year by living in that ‘sunny place’ Monaco! Live up to that ‘good ol’ boy’ image you put across on tv!

That’s a 2 million quid donation then to any UK charity you like , as long as it’s legit. Maybe ‘BEN’ the motor trades charity might be appropriate.
If that comes about then some good, belatedly, could come out of this thing.
For me he’ll always be someone who cheated on a mate , betrayed the employees, customers and creditors and ruined what might well have been a great future for everyone involved at Autoconti.

Fernando wrote:It's not the time or the place to bring stuff like that up Sean.