The men who paid £10 and made £40m

These are the men who helped take £40 million out of MG Rover but oversaw the company's crash, leaving thousands out of work.

The Phoenix Four was led by John Towers, a veteran of the industry and happy to be feted as its saviour in the Midlands.

However, while the workers who lionised him and his ambitions for the company were left with uncertain futures, he was collecting £8.95 million.

Since the MG Rover crash he has retired with his wife Beth to south-west France. He is said to be renovating two properties near Toulouse on an estate of 450 acres. His spokesman says he has not held a job since MG Rover, instead spending much of the last four years putting his case together.

The Phoenix numbers man was Peter Beale, an accountant and long-standing associate of Mr Towers. He received £8.98 million in salary, bonuses and perks from his time at MG Rover.
He is also said not to have worked since the collapse of MG Rover, instead spending his time collating data to defend the Phoenix consortium during the inquiry. Nick Stephenson was reckoned to be one of the foremost automotive engineering brains of his generation.

Paid £8.97 million from his time at MG Rover, he was the first of the four to get a job after the car maker's collapse and is now working in the US as an automotive industry consultant.

John Edwards was a Rover dealer whose family connections with the company went back nearly a century. He was by a small margin the biggest financial winner taking out more than
£9 million. He is said to be now working in business consultancy.