I remember taking a couple of phone calls at the Echo newsdesk from the new management at Poole Pottery at the time of the controversial takeover in August 2006.

Representatives of the owners expressed their displeasure at the negative' publicity in the paper, particularly over the business background of one of the new directors, Jeffrey Zemmel.

He had only just finished serving a five-year disqualification, banning him from running a company.

It is unlikely that Mr Zemmel or his former fellow director Roy Simmons will be telephoning the Daily Echo today.

In fact, we contacted both of them this week and neither had any comment to make over the front page lead of this edition.

The bald facts and figures of just how much the two men paid themselves as the company was going down the pan will no doubt be greeted with some shock and a great deal of anger by those who lost their jobs.

Some of them worked there for almost their entire lives and most are still fighting for salary and holiday pay. The collapse of the company came just before Christmas 2006.

For most of the workers, the holiday period was either severely curtailed or cancelled altogether. A good job they didn't know at the time just how much Mr Zemmel and Mr Simmons had (among other things) whacked on the company credit card at Harrods, Selfridges, Marks and Sparks, Tesco and Sainsbury.

The outcome of a government investigation into just what went on in Poole Pottery can't come soon enough.