Lloyds' spa plan to detoxify banking

Lloyds Banking Group dispatched a dozen top bosses on a luxury spa break designed to prevent them from "bail out, burn out or being booted out".

The two-day course took place at the celebrity haunt Champneys in Tring, a 170-acre haven in Hertfordshire where charges for such courses start at about £1,000-a-head.

The Lloyds break included a personal workout programme tailored for each of the executives, according to a report, and a seminar intended to "re-equip them with the skills of alpha males and females". Nutrition, "physique management", and anti-aging were among the topics.

Lloyds, which is 40 per cent owned by the taxpayer after being bailed out, maintained it was free. "It is important to stress that this was a free one-off event that a small group attended last year at the request of a customer who wanted feedback on a new programme they planned to launch. It was arranged by a senior executive who no longer works for the group," a spokesman was quoted as saying.

However, the Champneys chief executive, Stephen Purdew, reportedly said: "Of course they bloody paid for it."