The billionaire Phones 4u founder embroiled in a legal row with a ‘Machiavellian’ French wine heiress has been accused firing staff just to avoid paying them big bonuses.
Tycoon John Caudwell today told a judge at the High Court that he paid bonuses when they were earned and used them as a significant tool in ‘incentivising’ staff.
Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe, 39, says Mr Caudwell orchestrated an ‘elaborate conspiracy’ against her after they set up a wealth management company.
The billionaire is suing after accusing her of abusing her position at the wealth management firm they ran.
But Miss Dauriac-Stoebe, 39, is counter-suing, claiming she was forced out of her chief executive role, losing out on shares worth £17million and a £300,000 bonus.
Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe, 39, says Phones 4u founder John Caudwell (both pictured today) sacked people including her to avpid paying bonuses
Mr Caudwell said, in a written witness statement, that he had been accused of ‘always’ setting bonuses high then finding a way to fire the employee before having to pay.
‘I deny this,’ he said, adding: ‘I consider bonuses to be a significant tool in incentivising staff. When they are earned, they are paid.’
He said: ‘I am afraid Ms Dauriac is the most amazing liar I have ever met in my life. She is so Machiavellian. The vast majority of what she says is fabrication.’
Mr Caudwell said was friends with Ms Dauriac but their relationship had broken down.
‘I first met Ms Dauriac when she was my private banking relationship manager at Coutts bank,’ said Mr Caudwell in a written witness statement.
‘I considered that she was excellent, highly competent private banker. I also considered her to be very charismatic and professional in her approach.’
He said they had developed a ‘strong friendship’ but added: ‘Unfortunately our relationship broke down entirely.’
Ms Dauriac-Stoebe says Mr Caudwell, 65, launched an ‘unfair’ expenses investigation when she was chief executive at Signia Wealth Management.
A list of her disputed expenses reveals Ms Dauriac claimed for drinks with TV personality Lizzie Cundy and a trip to the Malaga birthday party of Dawn Ward, star of The Real Housewives of Cheshire.
She also claimed for her nanny and husband to fly with her to Bordeaux, lawyers claim.
They say Ms Dauriac-Stoebe even claimed for a £104 birthday cake for her husband Konrad, but she insists it was eaten at a meeting attended by her clients.
She says her assistant wrongly attributed the flights to friend Dawn Ward’s birthday when it was in fact for a business retreat.
And she said the £75 she spent on drinks at the Chiltern Street Hotel were also wrongly entered by her PA, and were actually with a client, not her friend Lizzie Cundy, the wife of footballer Jason Cundy, as was claimed.
Ms Dauriac (middle row, third from right) was pictured with Ward (back row, third from right) and Cundy (third from left) at a charity function hosted by Mr Caudwell in 2014
Court papers allege she wrongly claimed for drinks with TV’s Lizzie Cundy (left) and a trip to Spain to attend the party of Dawn Ward (right), star of The Real Housewives of Cheshire
Mr Justice Marcus Smith is analysing the dispute at a High Court trial in London and has heard how Mr Caudwell and Ms Dauriac set up Signia in 2009.
Ms Dauriac has complained of constructive dismissal and not getting what she was due.
She says she lost shares worth more than £10 million and wants compensation.
Signia bosses say Ms Dauriac wrongfully claimed around £30,000 expenses.
They say her approach to expenses claims was brazen and she was guilty of gross misconduct.
All sides dispute allegations made against them.
Mr Caudwell told the judge that he had grown Phones4u from ‘nothing’ and sold it in 2006 for around £1.5 billion.
He said since then he had focused on charitable and philanthropic activities.
The Phones4u tycoon previously told a judge he did not want to believe the growing accusations against Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe – who he had likened to a ‘daughter or sister’.
The businessman said her betrayal was the ‘last thing’ he wanted shortly after the breakdown of a relationship and a devastating Lyme disease diagnosis – and compared it to a bereavement.
Miss Dauriac claims she was forced out by Mr Caudwell (pictured in 2015) and was not paid for £17million in shares
His firm Signia Wealth is now suing former executive Miss Dauriac-Stoebe, 39, arguing she was guilty of misconduct after wrongfully claiming more than £30,000 in expenses.
While the Cambridge Univeristy graduate is counter-suing claiming she was made to quit after an ‘elaborate conspiracy’ orchestrated by the billionaire.
She is also demanding compensation – claiming her shares were sold to her for £2 when their true value was closer to £17million.
The businessman, 65, took the witness stand yesterday afternoon to refute the plot to oust the banker and deny her what she was owed.
He told Mr Justice Marcus Smith the allegations against her had hit him hard and he had hoped with ‘all my heart’ that she was innocent.
He said: ‘The whole process of this I found extremely disturbing at a time when I had so much other trauma in my life.’
The tycoon also said he had been ‘devastated’ by the developments, adding: ‘Put simply, it appeared that my trust in her had been seriously abused and teh feeling was not dissimilar to bereavement.’
The trial also heard the tycoon suffered memory problems due to Lyme disease.
Miss Dauriac-Stoebe claims the founder of the mobile phone firm Phones 4u launched the ‘unfair’ expenses investigation in late 2014 when she was earning £200,000-a-year and overdue an annual £300,000 bonus.
In his witness statement, Mr Caudwell said Miss Dauriac-Stoebe was his private banking manager at Coutts bank from 2005 to 2006 and they developed a ‘strong friendship’ – and he had often invited her and her family to holiday on his yacht and his home in Colorado.
The billionaire agreed to be godfather to her first child and said he ‘trusted and respected’ her, the court document shows.
But he said a whistleblower later disclosed information to show she had ‘routinely and regularly used her company credit card to fund her lifestyle’ – including shopping trips to Monaco and Cannes, family flights, hairdressing, and gifts for children.
Mr Caudwell said travel to holidays with him should not have be classed as business trips and claimed under expenses, adding: ‘My attitude has always been that travel wastes time and money and I never want to do either in pursuit of business if it can be avoided.’
He admitted he had told Miss Dauriac-Stoebe to get psychiatric help, adding: ‘This was a genuine gesture to help, not to bully her as suggested.’
The tycoon said at first he had a ‘sense of genuine loyalty’ to her as she had been his ‘best friend for a number of years’.
But he added: ‘I was presented with further compelling evidence of (her) wrongdoing and started to hear increasingly disturbing accounts of how she had over a number of years mismanaged the business and callously and maliciously manipulated and used people, obviously now, including me.
‘This came as a real shock and was very difficult to come to terms with.
‘I was extremely saddened by this and was disgusted and dismayed that not only had (she) let me down so badly but almost more importantly the malicious way… she has treated other people.’
Mr Caudwell said she had told him she was willing to learn from her mistakes and told him: ‘I love you… and always will.’
He said he hoped the situation might be ‘retrievable’, but he said he believed she later resigned with no notice because she ‘did not wish to face the consequences’.
One of the businessman’s accountants Timothy Maycock had earlier told the court that Mr Caudwell had encouraged his staff to treat every pound as if it was their own.
He said: ‘John always takes a very firm view on costs and expenses and leads by example.
‘For example, he will always strive to travel as cheaply as possible, structuring his affairs to take advantage of off-peak train fares wherever possible.’
But he also admitted some of Miss Dauriac-Stoebe’s expenses claims – including flights to see a friend in Malaga and a birthday cake for her husband – were probably legitimate as they were done for business purposes.
All sides dispute allegations made against them.
The hearing continues.