Odey gives himself £3.5m pay deal

FLAMBOYANT fund manager Crispin Odey, half of one of the City's foremost power couples, has awarded himself a pay package of £3.5m, despite losing £6m on Railtrack shares.

Odey, 42, who became Britain's highest-paid boss in 1994 when he paid himself more than £19m, is married to Nichola Pease, chief executive of JO Hambro Capital Management. His first wife was Prudence Murdoch, daughter of media tycoon Rupert.

His company, Odey Asset Management, is currently celebrating a controversial victory over the taxman. The Inland Revenue has withdrawn a claim that it should pay £2m in National Insurance contributions on bonuses paid to Odey and his lieutenants in the form of life assurance policies, according to specialist magazine Financial News.

Odey said: 'We only get paid well if our clients do well.' He has been one of the most outspoken critics of the collapse of Railtrack after his hedge funds bought shares shortly before the government pulled the plug.

Pease, 39, earned £500,000 last year, but is almost certainly a multi-millionaire. She is a member of an illustrious City dynasty. Her late father was Sir Richard Pease, a former chairman of Yorkshire Bank and one of the founding families of Barclays Bank. Brother Richard is a fund manager at rival New Star. She and Odey combine their careers with bringing up three young children.