Olympic swimming champ Samantha Riley
Olympic swimming champion Samantha Riley is being sued for $2.34 million over a swimming business that went bankrupt just four months after she sold it to new owners.
The Olympic medalist’s company, Sam Riley Promotions (SRP), has been accused of breaching an agreement with the new buyer of the swimming school in Capalaba, Brisbane’s southeast, in September 2014.
The buyer, Alex Brown, said Ms Riley agreed to train the new owner and staff for six months after the business changed hands, The Courier Mail reported.
Under new ownership, the business went bust in January 2015, just four months after Ms Riley sold it to Mr Brown for $210,000.
The business, called Summer Swim, traded as Capalaba Swim Stars.
The business told the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday it only went bust because Ms Riley did not train the staff as ‘promised’.
Summer Swim also alleged one of its senior staffers quit the job two months after the business changed hands because Ms Riley poached her for another business she owned.
The business said the staffer’s resignation was ‘encouraged or counselled by’ Ms Riley’s company SRP.
Ms Riley denied the claim.
Samantha Riley of Australia poses for a photo with her two gold medals during the 1994 World Swimming Championships held in Rome
The pool (pictured) at the centre of the drama now goes by the name Aqua Champs Swim School
Ms Riley’s lawyers also said she gave ‘no promise’ she would refrain from taking staff from the business.
Justice David Jackson was critical of Summer Swim’s $2.34 million claim.
‘On any view, this is an unsustainable claim for damages. Even if the plaintiff’s claim is successful, it is nothing like a claim for $2.34 million,’ he said.
The case will return to court next year.
The Olympic medalist’s company, Sam Riley Promotions (SRP), has been accused of breaching an agreement with the new buyer of the swimming school in Capalaba, Brisbane’s southeast, in September 2014
Following the controversy in early 2015, Sam Riley’s swimming school was brought back as the acting manager.
Ms Riley’s business stayed on as acting manager of the swimming school even when the school changed hands again in October 2015.
Triple Olympian Ashley Callus bought the school, which now goes by the name Aqua Champs Swim Schools.