Carpenter gives Branson's cash to charity

Sir Richard Branson wrote to Riger Virgin personally

A south Wales carpenter who received a £5,000 goodwill gesture from Sir Richard Branson after a row over copyright has handed over the money to a children's charity.

Roger Virgin, who runs Virgin Building Services, in Tongwynlais, near Cardiff, had been threatened with legal action by Sir Richard's Virgin company if he did not change his name for advertising.

Mr Virgin said he was contacted by the world-famous company after it saw an advertisement for his business in the Yellow Pages on the internet.

Letter of apology

But Mr Virgin, who had been trading under his own name since 1975, refused to back down.

But a spokeswoman for Virgin said that the situation had been resolved after Mr Virgin agreed to state in any advertising that he was separate from the world-famous company, and to make it clear in Yellow Pages that he was Mr R Virgin.

Sir Richard ended the row by writing a letter of apology and sending Mr Virgin a £5,000 gesture to give to a charity of his choice.

His spokeswoman added that they had never wanted to stop Mr Virgin using his own name.

'In the right'

Mr Virgin decided to hand it over to the NSPCC because he takes part in numerous bike rides for the charity and raises money for them throughout the year.

"It was unbelievable to get a letter from Sir Richard himself," he said.

"I always knew I was in the right and I carried on with the fight even though it was quite stressful.

"But it is my family name and I did it for my mother and father who are now dead."