Three estate agents have been fined a total of more than £600,000 for operating an illegal cartel to fix commission rates. The three firms, all from Berkshire, were Michael Hardy, Prospect and Richard Worth. Together with a fourth company, Romans, they began fixing prices in September 2008. They conspired to set minimum commission rates for
A marketing company has been awarded £150,000 following a contract dispute with a Formula One racing team. The case involved Amp Advisory & Management Partners A.G. and Force India Formula One Team Ltd (In Liquidation) (2019). The issue arose after Force India announced a sponsorship deal with an Austrian company in March 2017. Amp had
A minority shareholder has been granted an interim injunction preventing a company from issuing new shares and loan notes. The applicant in the case had a minority shareholding in Brickvest Ltd (2019). There was a shareholders’ agreement specifying that certain matters required the applicant’s written consent, including the allotment of shares. The applicant sought an
A marketing company that specialises in introducing sponsors to sports teams has lost a commission claim against a Formula One racing team. The case involved Sports Mantra India Private Ltd and Force India Formula One Team Ltd (in liquidation, 2019). The two parties made an agency agreement in 2009 stating that: “”If Force India enters
A property developer has been prevented from refinancing a building project until it pays back a loan to a minority shareholder. The developer had been working on a site with 102 flats. The project was funded by a £1.7m loan from another company and a loan of £1.3m from a minority shareholder. It sold 76
A print firm has won its claim that it was deceived into buying a business because the seller had fraudulently misrepresented key issues and withheld damaging information. Glossop Cartons and Print Ltd had bought Contact (Print and Packaging) Ltd after lengthy negotiations. The deal meant that Glossop took on Contact’s entire business including its employees,
A director has been banned from running a company for six years after approving payments that were detrimental to creditors. James Wilson McAllister, aged 51, currently living in Marbella but formerly of Kilmarnock, was the sole director of Greetings (International) Ltd – now known as Acquisition 395215436 Limited – based in Irvine, Scotland. The company
A company has been fined a record £7.8m by HMRC after breaching money laundering regulations. An investigation by HMRC officials found that West London money transmitter Touma Foreign Exchange Ltd had failed in several ways to carry out its duties under the Money Laundering Regulations. These failures included: risk assessments and associated record-keeping policies, controls
A digital printing company that used the name FREE PRINTS has moved to prevent a competitor using the same phrase in its advertising. Planet Art used the trading name FREE PRINTS as part of its online branding. Another printing company called Photobox began using the phrase FREE PRINTS in its app. The two companies offered
A court has ordered that a director should be removed from his position after several sums of investors’ money were dispersed into various companies. The director ran a business that sought investment for developments of hotels and care homes. Investors received a long lease on one of the rooms in the developments, and a high