Towergate’s ambitions were momentarily, sensationally and mistakenly unveiled to Backchat at the Biba regional conference in Leeds last week.

Despite reading from the programme, the compere of the event made a small (but potentially fatal) error when introducing Andy Homer, chief executive of the broking behemoth.

Having informed the attendees of various details of Homer’s personal life (including his two sons and fondness for West Bromwich Albion football club) the compere mistakenly switched the words ‘alive’ and ‘dead’ in his preamble.

Consequently, Homer was introduced with the sound-bite: “His ambition is to be worth more dead than alive.”

Luckily for Homer, most of the audience – courtesy of a particularly gruelling session with the FSA – were in no mood to open fire.

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