Buffini: the tycoon and the rotting burgers

Damon Buffini, the multi-millionaire head of Permira, the London-based private equity group, and an advisor to Gordon Brown on economic matters, has devised an unusual way of showing his staff how fortunate they are to have jobs - by feeding them two-day-old burgers from McDonalds.

The tycoon (pictured), who according to the Daily Mail had grown sick of his colleagues' poor attitude in the work place, ordered 100 Big Macs to be delivered to his offices in Covent Garden. He then let them fester for 48 hours before calling a meeting at which, after delivering a sermon on how lucky they were to be in employment and how they would no longer be allowed to dine in smart restaurants, he told them to eat the rotting burgers.

"The incident happened just before Christmas and involved about 100 staff in the London office," a City source told the Mail. "The burgers had been heated up before they were eaten."

Buffini's firm Permira are the joint owners of the Automobile Association, none of whose staff have, as yet, been subject to the same ordeal.