The reckless rule of Peter Cummings continues to throw up nasty surprises 11 months after he was kicked out of HBOS.

It was generous squirts of Cummings-approved cash, both loans and equity, that enabled the absurdly hubristic Kenmore empire to expand to the size and scope it did. Kenmore yesterday collapsed, but not before it had attracted £1.8 billion in investment, at least £700 million of it from HBOS.

In the space of a few years, an obscure Edinburgh property developer was putting up office blocks and other developments from Helsinki to Dubai. Not content with property, the Kenmore founder, John Kennedy, expanded into private equity, pumping money (other people’s money, of course) into upmarket ski togs, underwater wave power, caravan parks, you name it. There was nothing Mr Kennedy would not turn his hand to, including attempting to commercialise the inventions of local university boffins through an Aim-listed vehicle called Braveheart.

One of Mr Cummings’s last moves before being shown the door was to approve yet more cash for Kenmore. HBOS’s new owner, Lloyds, is now doing the same thing, agreeing a new line of credit in the hope of avoiding a fire sale and eventually salvaging more from the wreckage. Lloyds shareholders, and taxpayers, must just hope the bank’s new commercial team is a better judge of risk than its predecessor.

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