AN ACCOUNTANT and Kidderminster Harriers FC director has been branded “dishonest and unreliable” by a judge after poaching clients from the Leicestershire practice he sold in a £1m deal.
In September 2007, Andrew Maidstone sold Maidstones of Ashby to Midlands accountants Baldwins with a three-year agreement that he would not “canvass, solicit or endeavour to entice” away any of his former clients.
But Baldwins has successfully taken Maidstone to court, charging him with trying to entice former clients to his new employer Charnwood in Loughborough, for which he worked as a consultant following the sale.
Maidstone, who joined Harriers in April and who has been backed by the club following the court case, was ordered to pay damages of £32,000 to Baldwins and costs.
In November 2008, Maidstone took up a new position at Baldwins but a just a month later, he met with two partners from Charnwood to discuss working for them on a 20% commission for “new clients introduced” which he described as “success-based remuneration”.
After an email exchange in March 2009 between Maidstone and Charnwood, in which details of the “agreement” were finalised, he switched to part-time hours at Baldwins.
After receiving his final payment under the sale agreement, Maidstone left Baldwins in November 2009. The firm said Maidstone had been working to lure clients away to Charnwood during his time with them.
Judge Simon Brown QC, sitting in the High Court in Birmingham, found Maidstone guilty of contravening the sale agreement and endangering the goodwill of the firm.
He described the 46-year-old as “devious and arrogant” and that “he was intending to have his cake and eat it – to use the vernacular: i.e. greedy”.
The judge further commented his behaviour had been “reprehensible” and that he was a “dishonest and unreliable witness”.
He said Charnwood partner Dave Barnett had also been an unreliable witness and his evidence was “collusive and highly improbable”.
The judge added that evidence given by both Maidstone and Mr Barnett was “collusive and highly improbable”, concluding that Maidstone “intended to solicit his former clients and entice them away to become clients of Charnwood”.
Baldwins partner David Baldwin said: “I’m glad this is now all over and justice has been done. I know we all want to concentrate on continuing to give a good local service to the businesses in the Ashby area without the distraction of this case hanging over our heads.”
Baldwins is an independent family-owned accountancy firm with more than 120 employees and offices in Walsall, Tamworth, Stourbridge, Leamington, Nuneaton and the East Midlands.
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