After a two day hearing, HHJ Mackie QC (sitting as a judge of the Queen’s Bench Division) has granted summary judgment for more than £12 million to a private investment company against its former director and chief executive. Between 2012 and 2013, the defendant took substantial sums from the claimant’s bank account, using the money to buy a manor house, to support businesses in which he had shares, and for other purposes of his own. The defendant asserted that the claimant had in fact orally authorised loans of this money, and furthermore had promised him multi-million pound earnings from fund management, on which he sought to base a counterclaim.
The Judge found that, although this was a fraud case, there was no purpose in allowing the action to go to trial. The money that the defendant had taken was meant for other purposes, the defendant had created false documents, had forged bank letters, emails and statements, and the defendant had even pretended online to be the claimant’s auditor. There was no prospect of a finding that the claimant had agreed loans as he alleged.
The claimant exercised its right to trace its funds in the defendant’s hands and asserted an equitable charge on the manor house that the defendant had bought. The judge confirmed this equitable charge, finding that it secured a liability of more than £9 million, plus compound interest. The manor house is being marketed by a receiver appointed on the claimant’s application in 2013.
Anthony de Garr Robinson QC and Clare Reffin appeared for the claimant, instructed by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP.
Read a copy of the Judgment at [2014] EWHC 762 (QB)