Leeds United chairman Ken Bates could face £1.5m bill for case
LEEDS United chairman Ken Bates has been ordered to pay £50,000 in libel damages to former club director Melvyn Levi but the bill for costs for the case could reach £1.5m.
Mr Levi, 65, who was a member of the Yorkshire Consortium that acquired the club nearly a year before Mr Bates’ purchase in 2005, had brought the action at London’s High Court over a letter and three articles published in club programmes.
He said he had been accused of trying to blackmail the club and of being a “shyster”.
Part of Mr Levi’s case was that in an article published in a programme in March 2007, entitled “The Enemy Within”, he was accused of blackmail, of being dishonourable and of making unscrupulous attempts to obtain money, which had deterred investors in Leeds United.
Mr Bates, 78, had denied libel pleading justification and fair comment. At the hearing his QC Simon Myserson had said the case centred on the “fall-out” from his purchase of the club.
Judge Sir Charles Gray yesterday found in favour of Mr Levi and as well as the £50,000 damages, ordered Mr Bates to pay an initial £400,000 towards costs pending a final calculation.
