Rollason feared bad news. For eight months, as chief executive of European Home Retail (EHR), parent of the Christmas-hamper group Farepak, he had been in talks with HBOS to try to keep the company afloat. Across the negotiating table had been Kelly and his HBOS colleague Martin Griffiths. A string of proposals had come to nothing.

Outside Paddington that warm Tuesday evening, Rollason phoned Kelly. The bank was rejecting EHR’s latest proposals. The group would go into administration. Rollason asked for the bank’s verdict in writing. At 9.33 that evening, an e-mail arrived, confirming that EHR was bust.

Four days later — appropriately on Friday 13 — a formal statement was issued: Farepak and EHR were in administration.

The dry tone gave no hint of the public furore that would ensue. Over the subsequent weeks, newspapers have been filled with tales of the 150,000 or so blameless, mainly low-income families whose savings — money set aside to pay for Christmas presents and treats — disappeared. EHR’s directors have been pilloried for allowing Farepak to continue accepting money even when they knew the company faced a crisis.

There have been calls for former Rentokil chairman and CBI president Sir Clive Thompson — paid £100,000 a year for a couple of days’ work a month as EHR’s non-executive chairman — to lose his knighthood. And HBOS has faced a torrent of criticism for intransigence and for pulling the plug on the company just when Farepak’s savers would face greatest losses.

And only now is the full story of the origins of the Farepak debacle — and the past few months of frantic activity to save it — coming to light.

Farepak had been built up by Bob Johnson, the son of a Smithfield meat trader. The idea was simple: over the year, customers saved a little each week. Then at Christmas, they received a food hamper. Farepak floated in 1989. Six years later, it bought Kleeneze which, like Farepak, sold goods through a network of agents.

In October 2000, the company made a disastrous move, spending nearly £38m on DMG, which sold books, stationery and CDs in offices and factories.

Crucially, the deal was financed by borrowing from Bank of Scotland, which later became HBOS.

The company gave HBOS a claim over all its assets — including the money from Farepak savers — to finance the DMG deal.

Johnson died suddenly in 2001. Thompson moved into the chair. In 2003, Rollason, previously finance director with National Express, became chief executive. He sold the loss-making DMG for £5m. And he bought two online businesses — gadget retailer I Want One of Those and sportswear seller Kitbag.

Last year, the group — now named European Home Retail — made £5.9m in the 12 months to April. Dividends rose to 3.3p a share — handy for the Johnson family, which retained about 30m shares. Their payout came to about £1m.