Tycoon topples to buffoon

Press, 25 September 1984, Page 23

Tycoon topples to buffoon

NZPA-AAP London The spectacular business career of Tony Russell was at its lowest ebb on Sunday. He was In debt and ruefully reflecting on the hazards of trying to sell 900 left shoes, one-legged women’s tights and bras with only one cup, the “Daily Mail” reported. “People like me should not be in business,” he said. “I am a complete failure, the worst in the country, and I’ve been irresponsible.” When the going was good, the 38-year-old market trader owned three vans and ran a warehouse. But after a £9OO (JNZ2356) conversion to one of the vans, a wheel fell off. Mr Russell then invested

£2OOO (5NZ5236) in a load of furniture but found legless tables and seatless chairs.

Worse was to come. In a desperate attempt to stave off financial collapse he spent £3OOO (SNZ7BS3) on bankrupt catalogue stock

But he did not examine the contents of the various bundles and there was no redress when he found that much of it was rubbish.

There were the tights, the lopsided bras and the realisation that be did not quite have the Midas touch.

“Everything I touched turned to lead,” he said from his home in Great Wyrley, Staffordshire. During his four years of open-air selling in markets, from Brighton to Bristol* and the Midlands, he was

known as “JR” to fellow traders because of the widebrimmed Stetson hat he wore. But Mr Russell did not possess the evil business genius of the character from the television series, “Dallas.” He was saddled with 900 left shoes, a batch of clocks with no mechanical parts and bathroom cabinets without minors. He also bought 2000 women’s dresses designed for the not-so-slim. They ranged in size from 22 to 30 — suitable for the 159 kg plus figure 'and found customers too shy to come forward. Mr Russell should have had an inkling of doom when he bought 1000 ex- - Laker Airways blankets. He

told customers they would be buying a piece of history. “They did not want brown-coloured history,” he said. On Sunday Mr Russell’s dog slept on the only two blankets that had not been discarded. At his bankruptcy examination in Walsall Mr Russell admitted deficiencies of £16392 (INZ423H). No order was made for automatic discharge and the examination was closed. It left the failed tycoon, his wife and two children contemplating the future on £75 (SNZSI4) a week Social Security from which £36 - (§NZ94) goes on mortgage repayments.