High Court hears of “pub lock-in” management meetings at Sports Direct
Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley once vomited in a fireplace during a drinking competition in a Derbyshire pub during a management meeting, an investment banker suing him has told the High Court.
Jeffrey Blue said that Ashley would engage in “pub lock-in” management meetings during which he would instigate drinking games and order in kebabs and fish and chips.
One session ended with Ashley being sick in the pub’s fireplace, the court was told.
Blue, who was working for Merrill Lynch when he first met Ashley, said he was “like no other client that anyone at Merrill Lynch had ever come across”.
Ashle is being sued by former investment banker Blue over a £15m deal he made in a pub. Blue says he only received £1m from the deal in which Blue would try and raise Sports Direct’s share price to £8.
Ashley disputes the claim.
Blue told the court the management meetings would take place in the Green Dragon in Alfreton.
He said: “These meetings were like no other senior management meeting I had ever attended in all my years of investment banking experience.
“It was effectively a ‘pub lock-in’ with alcohol continuing to be served well beyond closing hours and fish and chips being provided throughout the evening.”
Blue said on one occasion Ashley had challenged an analyst on the banker’s team to a drinking competition which included drinking lager and vodka chasers.
After about 12 pints and chasers, the analyst “apologised profusely” and had to excuse himself, the court heard.
“Mr Ashley then vomited into the fireplace located in the centre of the bar, to huge applause from his senior management team,” Blue said.
He said other meetings took place at the bar of a hotel in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
David Cavender QC, for Mr Ashley, told the judge Mr Blue’s claim was an “opportunistic try-on”.
He said Blue’s case was that Mr Ashley had made an agreement “over a heavy drinking session at a pub” and that the banker’s claim was “remarkable”.
Ashley is not expected to give evidence until later in the week.
