Carrie Johnson’s boss, Damian Aspinall, trousered £10.7m in government support last year at his casino venture Aspers UK Holdings. New accounts in at Companies House show it received £8.9m in furlough payments last year, as well as £1.8m through a business rates holiday.
Though handy, the money hasn’t stopped the business sinking still further into the red, running up a £16.2m loss on £13.4m in sales in 2021, to take ongoing trading losses to £48.8m and its net liabilities to £25.2m.
The prospects for 2022 are in the balance as well. “The casinos reopened under restrictions on May 17, 2021 and have remained open ever since,” it’s noted in the report.
“They have returned to profitability and are cash-generating. Attendances and trading revenues are lower than those experienced pre-pandemic as the night-time customers have been returning to the casinos at a slower rate than originally anticipated,” the report concluded. Still, one unnamed director managed to pick up a salary of £911,189.
No word yet from the Charity Commission on its investigation into alleged financial misappropriation at the Aspinall Foundation, where the outgoing prime minister’s wife still works.