Broker claimed Wentworth Alexander used confidential information to poach 63 clients
Bluefin has reached a settlement with Wentworth Alexander and two former Bluefin staff it claimed used secret information to take clients.
“For some months Bluefin and Wentworth have been locked in litigation. Bluefin claimed that Wentworth and its employees used confidential information and breached their contracts of employment,” Bluefin said in a statement today.
“Wentworth acknowledge that Bluefin had a genuine need to pursue these claims and protect its business. Bluefin is pleased to announce that a settlement of that litigation has now been reached.”
Bluefin had claimed in a high court writ that it lost 63 clients paying £700,000 in annual revenue to Northamptonshire broker Wentworth between January and June last year.
The writ alleged that former employees Barry Capon, Paul McCann and Godfrey Hammon planned to take Bluefin’s business for their newly established broker, Wentworth, and persuaded a further four Bluefin employees to join them.
The writ said that two of them, Alex Mitchell and Anthony Kearns, had breached their contracts and duties by using confidential Bluefin information and not handing it back when they left, and that Wentworth encouraged this.
“Under the terms of the settlement we are unable to discuss the specific case any further. However contracts of employment are there to protect our clients, our employees and our business. We take the obligation within these contracts very seriously and will go as far as necessary to ensure that protection,” Bluefin chief executive Stuart Reid told Insurance Times.
Wentworth was unavailable for comment.
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