Carphone Warehouse co-founder David Ross quits after disclosure failure

by Dave Keating | December 8, 2008 at 04:25 am

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David Ross, co-founder of British mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse (which also operates The Phone House in continental Europe) has been forced to resign after failing to disclose that he had pledged his shares in teh company against personal loans.

Mr Ross disclosed the pledges to the board, of which he was deputy chairman, yesterday and has resigned with immediate effect.

Shares in Carphone Warehouse fell more than 6pc to 87p in morning trading.

Charles Dunstone, Carphone’s chief executive, attributed the failure to disclose the information to ``an oversight or misunderstanding of what needed to be done.’’

A shaken Mr Dunstone said it was with ``great sadness’ that Mr Ross’s resignation had been accepted by the board. The two former school friends founded and built Carphone into one of Britain’s biggest telecom and retail companies.

Mr Ross pledged 136.4 million shares against personal loans, through various agreements between 2006 and 2008, the company said today.

The shares were ``part of a package of security comprising other assets of substantial value.’’ Under stock exchange rules, Mr Ross is required to disclose such arrangements to shareholders.