City Link trio are cleared of breaching labour laws

THREE former directors of failed delivery firm City Link have been acquitted of breaching labour laws.

The parcel firm collapsed into administration on Christmas Day and former managing director David Smith, former finance director Robert Peto and Thomas Wright, an assistant director at former owner Better Capital, were charged under section 194 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act.

The Government had claimed the managers should have filled in a two-page Insolvency Service form warning of ‘inevitable’ job losses. However, Deputy District Judge David Goodman dismissed the charge against all three men.

He said: ‘Retrospective use of a crystal ball is a concept I struggled at the time to understand.’

He made his decision after hearing about details of a £17m offer to rescue the Coventrybased courier firm.

At Coventry Magistrates’ Court, Judge Goodman said: ‘The defendants each gave evidence that they genuinely believed a sale in administration was not only possible but quite probable.’