DAVID ROSS, the Carphone Warehouse tycoon caught in a row over his business affairs, broke his silence this weekend to defend his name.

The entrepreneur, who has resigned all bar one of his public-company directorships after admitting that he failed to disclose that he had signed over his shareholdings as collateral against personal borrowings, is mapping out a future concentrating on his private business interests and philanthropy.

However, he is expected to have to sell some or all of his public shareholdings over time to service debts elsewhere after the collapse in value of his commercial-property holdings.

“I feel very surprised by the scale of the media furore about it,” Ross said. “It is deeply regrettable. My shares are owned by me and the deals I entered into were perfectly above board. Words like scandal just aren’t appropriate.”

Ross said he had drawn comfort from more than 500 text messages from friends and colleagues since the revelations emerged last Monday.

“People who know me know I would never knowingly operate in a dishonest manner,” he added. “They say what we’re reading about in the papers is not what you are.”

An investigation by the Financial Services Authority has yet to begin but Ross intends to co-operate fully when it does. “I am resolute in my determination to resolve this issue and move forward,” he said. Lawyers say that disclosure on using shares to guarantee loans is a grey area.

“It is regrettable,” added Ross, who also lost his job as Olympics finance adviser to London mayor Boris Johnson. “But it is an opportunity to re-evaluate and reconsider — it could be quite a cathartic process for me to look again at what I really want to do and enjoy doing.”

Ross believes that his business career is not over, but “there are plenty of other things to do in the world, different sorts of business. For example, in recent times, I have really enjoyed my not-for-profit work.”

Ross is already planning to dispose of his 2% stake in National Express, which was worth £14m last Friday. Some or all of his 19.4% stake, worth £160m, in Carphone Warehouse may follow soon.

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