Feature: Interview. Entrepreneur Gerald Ronson on excess, share dealing and the "Guinness Affair"

Published: 18 February 2010
by DAN CARRIER

IT is a well-worn joke among convicts that no one in prison is guilty – but one that raises few laughs for businessman Gerald Ronson. 

He became a house-hold name after a six-month spell behind bars which ended in 1991, following the share trading scam that became known as the “Guinness affair”. 

And while it epitomised the worst excesses of City behaviour during the Thatcher years, his continued claims of innocence actually have a legal basis. His fellow convict Ernest Saunders became a medical miracle – dubbed the only person ever to have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s inside prison and apparently make a full recovery when given his freedom.

But in his recently published autobiography, Ronson explains why he believes his trial was flawed and has been backed up by the European courts. They found evidence was gathered unfairly, and it still rankles today. 

“By the time the court ruled in our favour, it was clear we’d been mugged,” he notes.

Ronson, who grew up in Hampstead, was asked to buy Guinness shares to shore up the price as they made a takeover bid for the drinks group Distillers. They were paid a fee for their help – and were charged with theft and false accounting. It put him on the front pages, but it is allowed only a couple of chapters in the book. 

Instead, the life of an entrepreneur is revealed, but an entrepreneur who insists making money is not a primary motivating factor – he has lived in the same house since the 1960s, and says he has no wish to own a flash mansion – yet has made and lost two fortunes. 

The irony that Ronson should be known for the Guinness affair is underlined by the fact share dealing “was never my thing”, he says. It is property that has made him. His grandfather was a Russian Jew who fled to London to escape pogroms, and was a skilled furniture maker. He established a business that Gerald’s father Henry then took on and Gerald started working for when he was 14.

“He gave me a work ethic,” he says. “It is not like that anymore. We have become a society where people just want to get rich quickly. It was different when I was a child, you could earn a living using your hands.  

“Now people think nothing of over-exposing themselves financially and the upshot is a society where the value of hard work is eroded and we end up with a credit crunch because people want the trappings of a good life without having to put their backs into it.” 

The Ronsons made their fortunes through cashing in on the post-war reconstruction boom and brought the concept of self-service petrol stations to Britain in the 1960s. 

Away from cutting property deals, Gerald does charitable work, building schools in Israel for Arab and Jewish pupils, and has been made a global ambassador of the Druze religious community. Alongside building up his business he has spent years giving time and money to projects to promote community cohesion. Through his property developing, he has dealt with Ken Livingstone: he says the former mayor was brilliant to work with, cared pass­ionately about London, and refutes allegations of anti-Semitism.

“Ken always behaved correctly,” says Ronson. “He was never a big favourite of the Jewish community because he was prone to making stupid remarks. But I didn’t see him that way. I have spent my whole life fighting anti-Semitism: I can smell an anti-Semite a mile off and Livingstone is not anti-Semitic.”

His fight against bigotry has long roots, from his father boxing with the Jewish Boys’ Brigade in the 20s and 30s, through to his work with the 63 Group, modelled on the 43 Group, a body of ex-servicemen who were appalled to find fascists on the streets after the war, and set about disrupting their organisations so they could no longer peddle hatred.

“We pushed the fascists off the streets,” Ronson recalls with pride. “We gave them so much grief they could not speak anywhere.”

From the 63 Group grew a body Ronson is proud of, known as the Community Safety Trust. It gathers information on racism to help the police.

“We are there to keep people safe,” he says.

“We can help ethnic minorities – it is not just about anti-Semitism, it is about helping people who are Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and building mutual respect.”

• Leading From The Front: My Story. By Gerald Ronson with Jeff­rey Robinson. Mainstream Publishing, £18.99

• Gerald Ronson will be speaking about his book as part of Jewish Book Week, 11am on Sunday February 28 at Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, WC1.