Under cross-examination from Withington, Barrow claimed Withington had "put pressure" on him and fellow director Barrie Dix to come up with a redundancy settlement.
"Up until that point we had an amicable situation," said Barrow. "Then we suddenly had a situation with a claim and someone reading from a statement with innuendo."
He said Withington’s statement contained threats, including talking to the press. "If that’s not causing trouble I don’t know what is," he added.
Withington then put it to Barrow that there was never a situation where he implied he would ruin Augustus Martin’s business or that he had made any unsubstantiated claims, but Barrow said all threats were unsubstantiated until a meeting at the offices of ACAS on 10 October 2000, where Withington is said to have demanded £1.1m or he would expose some undisclosed irregularities in the firm’s working practices.
Barrow then said that at the 14 July 2000 meeting, Withington had threatened to call a press conference if the firm delayed an industrial tribunal.
The cross-examination was marked by constant argument between Withington and Barrow, with failure to agree on the majority of points in Barrow’s witness statement.
Withington put it to Barrow that on several occasions he had made him aware of his serious concerns about the handling of redundancies and various business activities. Barrow said Withington "may have read out something which could have said possible irregularities but he certainly never said to me that he had raised these things on several occasions".
"The first time we heard any names was January or February this year," he added.
Withington put it to Barrow that at the 10 0ctober at the offices of ACAS - where no ACAS representative was present – that Barrow and Dix had left their solicitor, Mark Dixon, outside the meeting room after the alleged demand for £1.1m had been made because "you didn’t want to take the risk of him hearing the answers to questions you intended to ask". But Barrow said he "wasn’t worried" about Dixon hearing.
He said that when Dixon was present Withington hadn’t given them any information, and when he wasn’t Withington "didn’t get anywhere at all".
Barrow said he had been angry with Withington’s advisor because he hadn’t begun to negotiate a settlement and had "just pointed at this ridiculous sum of money", the £1.1m.
Barrow then said he offered Withington compensation of £76,000 against the net £750,000 asked for by the advisor.
"You were managing director for just under two years," he told Withington. "The maximum claim we had in mind was £50,000 so to talk about £1.1m was nonsense."
Withington also challenged Barrow’s claim that Withington had said he would invite key clients and other interested parties, including the press, to a tribunal, but Barrow said that he had made the comment.
Withington claimed that Barrow had asked to withdraw Dix’s comment that the demand was blackmail, but Barrow said he didn’t withdraw it and instead he asked not to get into a discussion about it at that time.
Barrow also denied Withington’s claim that he had had knowledge of Withington’s concerns about irregularities from July 1999.
Earlier in the day, a hesitant Mark Dixon told the hearing that after the 10 October meeting he had told Barrow and Dix that they should instruct a firm of lawyers familiar in similar cases as he didn’t feel he had the necessary background.
He said Barrow had turned to him in Dix’s Range Rover and questioned him about the content of the document presented at the meeting and he asked whether it was blackmail.
"I am not familiar with blackmail and I thought ‘what did it say in the student textbook?’. I didn’t think it was in my area of competence."
Dixon also admitted he had no record of the blackmail allegations arising from the meeting of 10 October in his file note for that meeting.
"The things that concerned me more were criminal allegations," he added.
Dixon also said that during a break he had suggested to Barrow and Dix that they should terminate the meeting due to those concerns, and that it was "against his preference" that they went back in.
The case continues.
Story by Gordon Carson
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