Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesman, has called on the government to launch legal action against the former directors of Northern Rock, over allegations that they 'misled' taxpayers.
Cable and Lord Oakeshott, his Lib Dem colleague, claim Northern Rock used unconventional accounting practices that flattered the level of bad debts in its mortgage book.
An investigation by the mortgage bank’s new management has revealed that Northern Rock did not always consider customers to be in arrears until they were more than three months behind with their payments.
The Lib Dems claim this practice undermines the repeated claims by Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock’s former chief executive, that the bank’s mortgage book was of a higher quality than the industry average.
Sunday Times
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