£multi-million row erupts as pals fall out over MBE award

A PAIR of childhood friends from Derbyshire who set up a multi-millionpound business together fell out after one was awarded an MBE, a court has heard.

Adrian Fewings and Martin Poulter had been close friends for more than 30 years and had success together after setting up the firm Derbyshire Aggregates in 1984.

However, the BBC reports that the pair fell out “irretrievably” when Mr Fewings, who lives in Buxton, was given an MBE in June 2018.

The High Court was told this led to a row between the pair, with Mr Poulter believing his friend did not deserve the honour. This then escalated, with the court hearing Mr Poulter pressured him to resign by threatening to report financial wrongdoing by Mr Fewings and others to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and the police.

The Hon Mr Justice Fancourt said this took place at a meeting on June 18, 2018, and described it as “an ambush” which contained a “clear threat” of prosecution and revocation of the MBE.

Mr Fewings formally resigned as a director of the company, which is thought to be worth between £32.9m and £57.9m, after a second meeting two days later and a contract for the sale of shares held by him and his wife was sent in July.

However, solicitors working for Mr Fewings later wrote to other directors accusing Mr Poulter of trying “unlawfully to manipulate” him and said the actions amounted to “extortion and blackmail”.

The directors refused to reinstate Mr Fewings to his former role and the case was taken to the High Court.

In a newly published judgement, it was revealed that both Mr Fewings and Mr Poulter admitted dishonesty in their financial dealings and that an investigation by HMRC is taking place.

A HMRC spokesman said it could not comment “due to the law around taxpayer confidentiality”.

Judge Fancourt ordered that Mr and Mrs Fewings should be paid a “fair price” for the shares by Mr Poulter, with that figure being calculated as £20.85m.

He said that he found Mr Poulter was “genuinely aggrieved” by the awarding of the MBE, but said he felt it was a “pretext” to get Mr Fewings to resign.

A draft email was found giving Mr Fewings a “choice between going quietly and exposure of serious financial wrongdoing to the police and HMRC”.

Although [he] was willing in principle to sell his stake in the company, he would not have resigned until a satisfactory price had been agreed,” the judge said.

“[Mr Fewings] resigned from the company because he knew that he had no real option: he could no longer work with [Mr Poulter] and he could not be bought out without resigning.”

A company spokesman said: “The directors of Derbyshire Aggregates Limited (DAL) are content with the outcome of the recent ruling over the dispute between the shareholders.

“DAL is pleased that this dispute has now been resolved and that the business is now prepared to buy the Fewings out upon the basis ordered by the court.”