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Client Type: Individual

The one with the son stealing from his elderly mother…

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Acted as a Litigation Friend for an elderly individual seeking recovery from her son who had diverted monies due to the client when managing the estate of her late husband.

The Defendant was acting in his capacity as Executor and breached his duties by diverting funds for his own benefit into acquisition of his own home.  The loss caused to the client was in the region of £150,000 to £200,000.   Assistance to the victim included identifying a claim for undue influence.    At trial the victim was successful in obtaining an order that the funds from her late husband’s estate had been misappropriated

The one with too much trust and then too much loss…

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Advised a co-director and 50% shareholder of a large property investment company in relation to allegations that his fellow shareholder and director had misappropriated and diverted funds for his own benefit unbeknown to the client.

Advised in relation to all aspects of the claim including unfair prejudice proceedings and breach of fiduciary duties.  The loss was alleged to be in the order of £1,000,000. Allegations were made by both parties which created risk as to ongoing litigation costs and likely recovery.

As a result, the parties agreed to mediate and avoid the cost of litigation so to find resolution.

The one with false loans, charity money and no paper trail…

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Advising a family resisting a false claim for return of monies from an individual who claimed to have loaned more than £500,000 to them.  Investigations included unravelling unusual transactions of monies filtering through the Claimant’s bank accounts, not for the purposes of the loan but to assist in conversion of currency in a different jurisdiction.    This required an in-depth investigation of the ability of the Claimant to have raised the money for the alleged loan.  In showing that he could not have been the source of the loan monies, his claim was weakened.  Concerns remained about the source of the monies from a community charity. 

The claim for repayment of the alleged loan was successfully resisted in a trial at the High Court.

The one with the manufactured accounts and forecasted future profit

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We were instructed to advise minority shareholders in relation to a dispute with majority shareholders arising from a previous offer to acquire the majority shareholders’ stake in a private company.

The minority shareholders made their offer to acquire the majority shareholders’ shares based on financial information that had been disclosed.  An offer was made for an agreed amount.  Subsequently it was discovered prior to completion of purchase of their shares that the valuation had been inflated, allegedly fraudulently.

The client was advised to argue that they had been deceived by misrepresentations by the majority shareholders.   The clients alleged fraudulent misrepresentation so to rescind i.e. terminate the contract to purchase the shares.  This was followed by a claim alleging unfair prejudice.

The case resulted in the client not having to purchase the shares, but selling their own shares to resolve the overall dispute.

The one with the joint venture for the benefit of only one business partner

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Advice was provided an individual to obtain a non-party disclosure order against banks holding accounts belonging to companies that were part of a joint venture set up to promote a construction product.  Those joint venture companies and accounts were controlled by the client’s former business partner.

The disclosure revealed the scale of unauthorised transfers in breach of fiduciary duties which were undertaken by the joint venture partner for his own benefit and that of his family, unbeknown to the client.

The investigation work enabled to the client to obtain a freezing injunction to ensure that the joint venture partner would not dissipate assets during proceedings.  Proceedings were brought for breach of fiduciary duties and breach of terms of the joint venture agreement in the High Court to resolve matters on behalf of the client.

The one with the broken promise by a friend…

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Advised an individual who had loaned approximately £13,000 to a friend for the purposes of investment in a property purchase.  In order to protect the client and apply pressure to the Defendant in an approach with the least cost, the client successfully obtained a restriction at the Land Registry in relation to the property in which the monies had been invested.

The restriction was obtained following arguments that the investment monies were held on “constructive trust” and due to the recipient (the client) because repayment of the investment had not occurred when due.   The client recovered all of their money.

The one where the jewellery retailer acting as an agent for himself

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Advised an individual who had left high value watches for repair and sale to a specialist watch and jewellery retailer.  That retailer as an agent for the client failed to communicate with the client to either return the watches or confirm sale of the watches.  This caused the owner loss of approximately £12,000.

Advice was provided in relation to breach of trust, as it appeared that the agent had secured the watches for his own benefit and made sale of the same without accounting to the client.  This led to the individual owner of the retailer being made bankrupt for failure to repay monies based on his breach of trust.

The one with the perfect presentation without any foundation…

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Advice was required by investors in relation to false and misleading statements made to induce them to invest in a large group of companies.  It is alleged that the investors were misled as to the inherent value of the business with its value said to be more than £50m when the value of the business was nowhere near this amount.

After a number of years, the investors realised from a document belonging to the company that the investors may well have been misled. This led to the investors narrowing their focus to misrepresentation of value, and pursuing a claim against not only the company in which they invested, but also the individuals who caused the valuation to be produced to them. Losses are estimated to be in excess of £400,000.

The one where the wealthy were targeted with a savings scheme without benefit.

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Advised a group of footballers who believed they were investing in the development of a film.  They were misled as to the progress of an investment into the development of a film as part of a tax saving initiative.

Each of the footballers through their financial investment advisors placed monies in the investment on the basis of it being tax efficient and sensible for future return.  They were however misled in relation to the viability of the scheme in terms of its performance and current position and therefore this led to them suffering loss.  Advice was provided in relation to their options for recovery which were founded on their allegations of fraudulent misrepresentations.  The losses suffered were more than £100,000.

The one with the alleged backhander…

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Advice was provided to directors of a company of a telecoms and internet services business in relation to allegations made against them by a housing association.  It was alleged by the housing association that the company client had won the supply of telecom and internet services by inducing the head of procurement into favouring the company’s tender.  The case involved advising the directors of the telecoms company to defend proceedings brought against them including challenging a freezing injunction against the company and its directors of more than £2m in value.

The freezing injunction was successfully opposed with the clients discharging the freezing injunction and obtaining a sizeable costs order. Our understanding of key arguments to be considered when challenging the freezing injunction, especially concerning whether there was risk of the directors of the clients dissipating (i.e.moving) their assets enabled the clients to succeed.  This result led to an early resolution of the proceedings.