Phones billionaire claims ‘victory’ despite being ordered to pay heiress £500,000
THE billionaire founder of Phones 4u claimed victory yesterday in a bitter multi-million pound High Court battle with a French heiress.
John Caudwell said he had been to ‘hell and back’ but said justice had been done after Nathalie Dauriac was awarded close to £500,000 – a fraction of the £20million she had demanded.
The pair had founded Signia Wealth Management but Miss Dauriac left the firm after a row over her expenses in 2015. Despite ruling she had been forced out, the judge said the mother- of-two had been ‘remarkably unsatisfactory’ on the witness stand.
The heiress – who claimed she had been cheated out of the true value of shares worth millions when she was forced out – yesterday called on the law to do more to protect women in business.
Mr Justice Marcus Smith concluded that Miss Dauriac, a former Coutts banker, had been ‘constructively dismissed’ after analysing the dispute at the High Court in London last year. But he said there had been ‘no proper determination’ of the value of her shares before awarding her about £500,000.
Mr Caudwell, 65, said the ruling reinforced ‘the ridiculous nature of her claim’ and that the sum awarded would be ‘vastly outweighed’ by legal costs she is likely to have to pay.
He added: ‘Over the course of the last three years I have been to hell and back as a consequence of a series of baseless allegations made against me.’
He claimed Miss Dauriac had expected him to settle out of court and added: ‘She was totally wrong in that assumption’.
Miss Dauriac, 40, left her job as chief executive of Signia in January 2015 after being accused of wrongfully claiming about £30,000 in expenses. She was said to have made claims for shopping trips, family flights, children’s toys and one for a £100 birthday cake for her husband.
The judge yesterday she had been a ‘remarkably unsatisfactory witness’ and that she had made expense claims she knew were ‘not proper’. In his ruling he said: ‘For these reasons, I am satisfied so that I am sure that Miss Dauriac deliberately made expense claims that she knew were not proper claims.’
Miss Dauriac, whose family own a vineyard in Bordeaux, said the case showed that judicial attitudes to women in business needed to change.
She said she was pleased the judge had upheld her claim of constructive dismissal and awarded her ‘significant damages’ after what she said was ‘relentless pressure to accept a series of outrageous demands’ as the price for staying in her job.
She accused senior management at Signia of mistreating women employees. ‘We were called many names, including “sociopath” and “nasty bitch”, said Miss Dauriac. ‘I am shocked that Mr Justice Smith should not consider this material to the case and I believe the judicial system needs to do more to ensure that women are protected from such abuse in the future.’