View from City Road: Nice pay-off if you can get it

Burton Group shareholders will no doubt be delighted to wish Richard North, its departing finance director, every success in his new job at Bass. It is a pity that Burton did not restrict itself to good wishes, too.

His pounds 310,000 pay-off always looked odd, given that the departure was entirely amicable. That he will walk immediately into another highly paid job makes it doubly so.

The only justification for a golden handshake - and a tenuous one at that - is to give a breathing space to allow the departing executive time to find a new job. That was clearly unnecessary in Mr North's case. The payment was, too.