Countrywide bought the estate agency business of Bradford & Bingley to add to its own in October. Unfortunately, it seems to have failed to pay the 2000 employees.

This comes as something of a surprise to Countrywide's chairman, Christopher Sporborg: "We normally pay 50pc of anticipated bonuses before Christmas.

"The bonuses this year will be at best disappointing because of the difficult last six months. I certainly received my fee."

It's no surprise to finance director Michael Nower.

"We took over some businesses from Bradford and Bingley in October and we took over the payroll services in December. The rest of the group got paid before Christmas but due to a computer glitch the system didn't send the money to the right accounts."

He's very sorry. So much for the post-Christmas sales.

Telegraph

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2005