A SPARKLING speaker has been chosen for a glittering York occasion.

Gerald Ratner, former boss of the jewellery chain empire whose reputation imploded after a gaffe that topped the list of “one of the 50 biggest mistakes of all time”, will be guest speaker at the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce dinner at the National Railway Museum on Thursday, March 19.

That faux pas came on April 23, 1991, when he gave another speech to the Institute Of Directors as chief executive of a Ratners riding high with 2,500 stores and profits of more than £120 million.

At the time, he joked: “We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say: ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’ I say: ‘Because it’s total crap’.”

He compounded the error by saying that some of his store’s earrings were “cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn’t last as long”.

Mr Ratner will tell 620 chamber guests – the largest dinner of its kind in the county – how he was then forced to sell the business and start again, first with a health club and then with geraldonline, his internet jewellery business, which is now the largest in the sector. The “Sultan of Bling”, as he has been known, is the latest in a long line of illustrious speakers at the chamber’s annual event, who include the Duke of York, former Tory Trade Secretary Lord Brittan, and former ambassador to the US Peter Jay.