Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross resigned today as
deputy chairman of the company.
This follows the
disclosure this morning that he pledged over 136million of his
shares in Carphone Warehouse against personal loans without telling
the firm. This contravened stock exchange rules.
Ross had earlier pledged 41million shares, but the company was
told of the transaction at the time.
Carphone Warehouse chairman Charles Dunstone said the
resignation was a matter of great personal regret to him. He said
Ross had not been operationally active in the firm for four or five
years.
Dunstone said he was unaware of what prompted the disclosure.
"{Ross] told us and we told the market as soon as we could," he
said.
None of the other directors had pledged any of their shares, he
said.
Dunstone said he didn't know what the loans had been used for,
nor what Ross's plans were for selling the shares.