The former president of the Valerie pastry says he was cheated by a false image of the company's health | Business

Luke Johnson, the business guru whose reputation sank after the implosion of Patisserie Valerie, the chain of cafes he chaired, broke his long silence as a result of a incident that he would have let himself feel physically sick.

In a personal account of events that led to the collapse of the chain, Johnson said he was deceived by a false image of his financial health and pointed his finger at listener Grant Thornton.

Despite Johnson's desperate attempts to save Valerie's pastry shop, including lending him £ 10 million, she went bankrupt in January after the discovery of a widespread accounting fraud that masked a black hole in her accounts.

"The stress made me physically sick – I suffered from a series of debilitating infections and I was taking antibiotics for weeks," Johnson said. "I had chronic insomnia and I felt exhausted and desperate. I rarely ventured – I had a paranoid feeling that people were watching me.

"If I had been arrogant at times before, my ego has been very rough since. A very public disaster like this breaks your confidence in you. "

The collapse of pastry Valerie, which employed 3,000 people after a blistering expansion led by Johnson, is one of the biggest stock market upsets of recent years. The company was valued at £ 450 million before potential fraud was reported and the administration eliminated shareholders, including Johnson, who held 37% of the capital.

The fall of grace was particularly acute for Johnson – who made a fortune by investing in restaurant chains such as Pizza Express, Giraffe and Strada – while the company was collapsing while he was there. wrote a regular column in The Sunday Times providing business advice. The chronicle is not published since last October, when the problems of pastry Valerie were made public, but in a mea culpa published this weekend, the contractor said he returned to the newspaper.

"It took me nearly nine months to understand what happened," he wrote. "I know I was not dishonest. I was not aware of the fraud. I have received strong weekly figures, complete monthly management accounts and, of course, annual accounts to which our auditors have given irreproachable health. "

Indeed, Johnson points Grant Thornton. He said: "One of the most amazing aspects of this entire episode is the way in which such a prominent company seems to have had the wool spread in great detail over its eyes. They have never raised important questions about the quality of our accounts. "

Valerie Pastry Chief Financial Officer Chris Marsh was arrested and released after the accounting scandal. The Serious Fraud Office opened a criminal investigation without further comment. Johnson said that he could be a witness in a serious criminal investigation.

He felt betrayed by the perpetrators of the alleged fraud, but also worried about his future and was becoming an "outcast in the business world". He said: "I was very depressed and I started thinking that my career in this country was over – that I had to emigrate."

Just over 900 Valérie pastry workers lost their jobs following the closure of 70 of the group's approximately 200 stores and franchises. Patisserie Holdings, its publicly traded parent company, was split and the coffee chain was sold to Irish private equity firm Causeway Capital Partners.

However, after all that he has gone through, Johnson explains his return to business and public life, saying that if business "fails, the entrepreneurs involved should not be falsified." "My life will always be influenced by Patisserie Holdings, but does that mean I should give up my 35-year career in the business world? I do not think so. I still have a contribution to make.