Retailer Etam is suing property consultancy Lawson Hubbard Lowe for allegedly paying bribes to its disgraced former property director Robert Sutcliffe.
The action is just the latest in a series of legal moves by Etam to recover its estimated losses of £2m from Sutcliffe’s fraudulent activities.
The writ says LHL paid bribes of £125,000 to Sutcliffe for contracts for property work. Etam wants an account of all monies paid to Sutcliffe, and his vehicle Taylor and Co, plus damages and interest.
According to Etam, Sutcliffe arranged for the retailer to retain LHL on numerous occasions between 1986 and February 1992. Instructions included rent review negotiations, property acquisitions and disposals. Etam says it paid the company over £250,000 – about half of which was then paid on to Sutcliffe through LHL directors John Hubbard, David Anderson, Douglas Barber and Powell Rose.
Payments to Taylor & Co were ostensibly made to discharge invoices for services. The writ claims LHL knew perfectly well that no services were rendered, and that the invoices were a device to disguise the true reason for the payments.
Etam says it will rely on admissions made by John Hubbard to Charles Price, a consultant retained by Etam to help in its investigations.
The retailer, which has 210 UK stores and an annual rent of over £200m, believes it could have secured the services of a property consultant for half of the fees it actually paid.
For details of the writ click here
PLS News 14/01/99
