Former Resort shareholders prepare damages claim

Former shareholders in Resort Hotels are raising cash to fund a legal action against the company's former auditors Coopers & Lybrand and other professional advisers.

The Resort Hotels Shareholders Action Group hopes to organise about 500 of the former investors in Resort to proceed with a claim for recovery of money lost and related damages resulting from the company's collapse in 1994. Some 6,000 small investors suffered.

John Bancroft, chairman of the action group, said: "The professional advisers should have been more vigilant."

The group's solicitor, David Greene, a partner at Edwin Coe, said he expected a decision by mid-June on whether to proceed with the case.

In April, Robert Feld, the former boss of Resort Hotels, was jailed for eight years. He was found guilty on nine counts of using forged documents and three counts of making false statements in financial documents relating to a £20.6m rights issue in 1992.

A spokeswoman for Coopers & Lybrand said the firm would defend itself against any action.