Sacked AA boss blames pills and alcohol for hotel assault
THE Automobile Association chairman sacked for assaulting a colleague is blaming a cocktail of alcohol and pills for the “sustained attack” that was caught on a hotel camera.
Friends of Bob Mackenzie, 64, have insisted he snapped in a moment of folly as a result of mixing the prescription drug diazepam with two pints of beer and two glasses of white wine.
The attack on Mike Lloyd, the head of the AA’S insurance division, was caught on a security camera in the bar of a country hotel where senior executives had been holding a strategy meeting. The footage was handed over to the AA, which used it as evidence to dismiss Mr Mackenzie for gross misconduct. The attack meant Mr Mackenzie missed out on a payout through share options reckoned to be worth in the region of £68million.
Mr Mackenzie, who has homes in London and Warwickshire, has now hired lawyers to argue he was unfairly dismissed due to the pressure he was under as AA executive chairman.
According to a friend’s version of events, Mr Mackenzie had been prescribed diazepam days before the meeting at the Pennyhill Park Hotel in Surrey on July 24. He was fired on Aug 1.
A friend said: “Nobody is saying he didn’t instigate it [the attack]. But he was in a bad way.”
The AA declined to comment.