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Birkett said a letter sent out to shareholders on 6 August calling for an emergency general meeting to be held on 20 August to consider the pair losing their director status contained "many inaccuracies".

Prestbury's shareholders called for the removal of executive directors Lee Birkett and his mother Lynne Birkett as directors of the mortgage network due to "conflicts of interest".

The call came a week after Prestbury announced a pre-tax loss of £1m for the 14-month period ending 31 December.

This was down from nearly £250,000 in profit in the previous trading year.

Birkett said shareholders with 44 per cent of the entire issued share capital, including Stephen Keenan, executive director, and Kevin Sample, sales director, had already undertaken to vote against the resolution to axe the pair.

In a letter to shareholders, Birkett said: "It is a slight on all of the executives and many years of hard work and we take great exception to the inference that we dealt with the credit crunch without the necessary business skills. Every effort has always been to enhance value by the Prestbury team, not destroy it.

"Your company and the industry is currently at an extremely critical time, and your business is all about the people within it. We have a small loyal team and all at Prestbury are working night and day to weather this terrible storm.

"I must also personally apologise to you as your chief executive; the deliverance of separate representations would make anybody understandably nervous, and I give you my personal assurance to fight on to deliver shareholder value for all."