Revealed: £2m Surrey mansion with outdoor pool that multi-millionaire Thomas Cook chief Peter Fankhauser rents for £6k-a-month – as it’s revealed he pocketed bonuses of £8.9m before world’s oldest travel agent went bust

• Dr Fankhauser, 58, lives in a six-bedroom Surrey home with his second wife, Italian Rafaella Cassini and two of his three children
• The ambitious Swiss chief executive was at the held when the world’s oldest travel agent went bust today leaving 600,000 holidaymakers stranded 
• Around 22,000 jobs – 9,000 of them British – have been lost after the holiday firm went under 
• Dr Fankhauser is one of a number of Thomas Cook executives have been paid a total combined more than £20 million over the last five years

This is the opulent £2million Surrey mansion rented by Thomas Cook boss Peter Fankhauser, whose firm went bust leaving hundreds unemployed and thousands of holidaymakers stranded. 

The lavish six-bedroom home, which the Swiss millionaire shares with his wife Raffaella Cassani and two of his three children, is rented at a rate of about £6,000 a month. 

Dr Fankhauser, 58, a former national gymnast and keen skier and snowboarder whose first job was teaching aerobics, received £8.9million in bonuses since his appointment in 2014, including a £2.9million bonus in 2015. 

Dr Fankhauser, 58, lives in a six-bedroom Surrey home (pictured) with his second wife, Italian Rafaella Cassini and two of his three children

The ambitious ceo of doomed travel agent Thomas Cook has previously spoken of renting the £6,000-a-month property in Surrey. Pictured: The kitchen of the vast luxury property

The Swiss Thomas Cook boss, who took over in 2014, has previously spoken of his enjoyment at living at the property (above) and being chauffeured every morning to his £1m-a-year job 

His most recent remuneration comprised a £725,000 salary, £82,000 benefits package and £217,000 pension contributions.   

Dr Fankhauser is one of a number of Thomas Cook executives have been paid a total combined more than £20 million over the last five years, despite long term fears that the operator faced collapse. 

Chief financial officers Michael Healy and Bill Scott, who started at the beginning of last, have together been paid around £7 million since 2014.

Dr Fankhauser (pictured) worked extensively to save Thomas Cook from collapse, he said 

More than £4 million was paid in this time to the non-executive directors, including Belgian chairman Frank Meysman, who has taken home £1.6m.  

Dr Fankhauser, the ambitious Swiss chief executive, who runs the last 10km to work every morning while his car is driven ahead with his bag, earned just over £1million last year, a fall compared to the £1.8million package he was awarded in 2017. 

While critics are angered by the huge sums pocketed by the chief executive of a failed company, many in the industry credit Dr Fankhauser with turning the firm around in the years before its collapse. 

When he took the helm, the company had been issued with a series of profit warnings. But in 2015 it turned a profit once again, as the company pursued a strategy of owning hotels to corner higher margins. 

But in 2018 the firm’s fortunes began to decline, prompted by a heatwave enticing customers to stay at home, uncertainty over Brexit and stiff competition from online rivals. 

While living at the exclusive property (above) the firm’s chief exec received a £725,000 salary, £82,000 benefits package and £217,000 pension contributions before it went bust

Thomas Cook chief executive Dr Fankhauser rents the property rather than owning it as he is believed to own property in other parts of the world including possibly Switzerland and Israel

The weakening pound is also thought to have contributed to the gradual downfall of the iconic tour operator.   

Mr Fankhauser faced one of his biggest challenges in 2015 amid intense criticism of how Thomas Cook handled the deaths of two children whilst on holiday in Corfu.

Dr Fankhauser faced a number of challenges when he took over Thomas Cook from Harriet Green in 2014

He admitted the firm ‘failed to show compassion’ following calls to boycott the company over its behaviour, which the parents of Bobby and Christi Shepherd, who died in 2006, described as ‘appalling’.

An inquest jury concluded that the operator had breached its duty of care after the children died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty boiler.

‘It is clear that there are things that we as a company could have done better in the past nine years,’ Mr Fanhauser said.

‘In particular, the way we conducted our relationship with the family and this is something that we are going to change. 

Thomas Cook collapsed on Monday, leaving some 600,000 holidaymakers stranded and sparking the UK’s biggest repatriation since World War II.

The 178-year-old debt-plagued group, which had struggled against fierce online competition for some time and blamed Brexit uncertainty for a recent drop in bookings, declared bankruptcy after failing to secure £200 million from private investors.

Thomas Cook collapsed on Monday, leaving some 600,000 holidaymakers stranded and sparking the UK’s biggest repatriation since World War II

Monday’s bankruptcy, which followed a lengthy period of chronic financial turmoil after a disastrous 2007 merger deal, also left its 22,000 staff out of a job

The British government launched emergency plans to bring some 150,000 UK holidaymakers back home from destinations including Bulgaria, Cuba, Turkey and the United States

Dr Fankhauser said his company had ‘worked exhaustively’ to salvage a rescue package.

He said: ‘I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and will cause a lot of anxiety, stress and disruption.

‘I would like to apologise to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years.’

Monday’s bankruptcy, which followed a lengthy period of chronic financial turmoil after a disastrous 2007 merger deal, also left its 22,000 staff out of a job.

The British government launched emergency plans to bring some 150,000 UK holidaymakers back home from destinations including Bulgaria, Cuba, Turkey and the United States.

Authorities have meanwhile launched an official investigation into the corporate collapse, according to a Downing Street spokeswoman who also cautioned that there were ‘a number of complicated reasons behind the failure’. 

The company’s failure comes just two years after the collapse of Monarch Airlines that prompted the British government to take emergency action and return 110,000 stranded passengers, costing taxpayers £60 million on hiring planes.

Thomas Cook’s demise caps a dramatic fall from grace for a company which was demoted from London’s FTSE 100 shares index in 2010 – and from the second-tier FTSE 250 last year. Its shares are worthless and now suspended.

‘It ultimately is management’s fault – whether they should have taken debt on (and) whether they should have had such a big high street portfolio,’ said Helal Miah, analyst at The Share Centre.

‘Maybe they should have thought about offloading that a lot earlier. They didn’t have the foresight of changing the business structure around,’ he said. 

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