Rich Ricci, is one of the wealthiest paid bankers in the country. This year he got paid £9.7 million in share bonuses alone. Last year his pay package came to £44 million, a large sum, even by my standards. Presumably, his employers, Barclays bank think that he is worth his salary and share option bonuses. One must also assume that without any evidence to the contrary, he pays his taxes full and promptly.
So naturally, he is symbolic of all the nasty greedy bankers that the left so hate. So equally naturally, there was a certain predictability of faux outrage, when he was caught buying tickets for the Euromillions lottery when the jackpot was worth £92 million.
Given all of the opprobrium that he was heaped upon him, one would have thought he was in the same category as Iorworth Hoare, who won £7.2million, when he bought a ticket when he was on day release from his prison, sentence for rape. Or even the former dustman, turned Lotto yob, Mikey Carroll, who blew £9.7 million and ended up on benefits.
Mr Ricci was guilty only of appearing to be greedy and foolish. Something we are all guilty of at times. It was surely worth a punt for a few pounds if the sum of £92. million, scarcely a trifling sum, was on offer. I might have been tempted myself. At least I would have sent one of the servants to get my tickets for me.
Of course it availed him nothing. In the end, nobody won. Least of all the papers that criticised him. Next Tuesday, the jackpot is £106 million. I might be tempted to have a punt myself.
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