Victims of the collapse of Christmas savings club Farepak have gathered in Glasgow and called for a full refund for all those now facing a bleak festive season.
The Ayrshire-based Farepak Victims Committee says it wants former company chairman Sir Clive Thompson to contribute to the Farepak Response Fund set up to aid families before it closes this week.
And the group are calling on the Government to bring in regulations to ensure that no one else will fall victim in the future.
Louise McDaid, 42, helped to organise the gathering at Glasgow's Quality Hotel. The carer from West Kilbride said: "We want those responsible to be held accountable for this.
"We want Sir Clive Thompson to make a donation to the Response Fund, and we'd like the Government to take some responsibility as well. The whole hamper industry wasn't regulated and we need to know why not. Why wasn't this anticipated?
"Regulations need to be put in place to make sure this never happens again. In the meantime our fight will continue for a full refund. We want every penny returned to us."
Around 150,000 Farepak customers in the UK each lost an average of £400 when the company went into administration last month.
Home Secretary John Reid has urged companies to dig deep before the relief fund ends on Wednesday.
He told the Scottish Labour conference in Oban: "It would be nice, even at this late stage, if one or more of the big trading conglomerates could make it a truly happy Christmas for all the families so badly hit by the Farepak scandal.
"And an even better one if we could find, as a Government, a way to make sure that something like that never happens again. I can assure you that we are working on that - Alistair Darling is seeing what we can do."
