A former managing director of a supplier of materials to the construction industry has taken commercially sensitive information belonging to the firm and is now working for one of its direct competitors, it is claimed in the High Court.
Dublin-headquartered Laydex Ltd is seeking injunctions restraining former MD Gerard Callan from using that information or disclosing or making it available to others.
The injunctions are also sought against Nora Treacy, regional sales manager with international pharma company Eli Lilly and described in court papers as a close friend of Mr Callan.
On Thursday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan granted Joe Jeffers SC, for Laydex, permission to serve at short notice the proceedings on Mr Callan and on Ms Treacy, who is alleged to have received some of the information.
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The application was made with only the Laydex side represented, and the judge said the case could return to court next week.
Peter Woods took over from Mr Callan as MD in 2019 with Mr Callan remaining as a director but with a substantially reduced role and for a three-year term.
In an affidavit, Mr Woods said this operated very successfully for a number of years and in summer last year Mr Callan started to float the idea of retirement.
Later, he said he should get a “golden handshake” on retirement as he said it had been previously promised to him, Mr Woods said.
This was disputed by others in the company and Mr Callan began to become more aggressive in expressing his desire for the golden handshake.
A year ago Mr Callan’s conduct became “quite bizarre” and he was disrespectful, insulting and verbally abusive “to us all”, Mr Woods said.
He turned up at a board meeting in Portugal in gym shorts and a T-shirt, something he had never done before, and spent most of the time on his phone, he said.
Mr Woods believes this was a deliberate effort to engineer a situation where his position with the company would be untenable and Laydex would have no alternative but to pay him a golden handshake.
Last December, with Mr Callan having made clear his intention was to retire, terms were agreed for his departure including a €35,000 redundancy payment with an extra €10,000 provided he did not compete with Laydex, Mr Woods said.
In March, Mr Woods said he heard Mr Callan had started working for competitor Fortune Ltd.
A review of Mr Callan’s company email account was conducted and further investigation revealed he deleted entire files and had sent quite an amount of confidential information to Ms Treacy’s Eli Lilly email, it is claimed.
He had also sent information to his own Gmail account and to that of his son Rory, who has no connection with Laydex, Mr Woods said.
Over the weeks, Mr Woods began getting calls from suppliers claiming Mr Callan had been actively pursuing Laydex suppliers and agents. Mr Callan was openly telling people he knew Laydex prices and he could pitch below those prices so the customer would move business, he said.
Mr Callan was threatened with legal action and he responded to say he had no recollection of transferring information and even if he had then he would not share it with third parties.
Mr Callan and Ms Treacy refused to provide certain undertakings sought by Laydex’s lawyers, Mr Woods said.
Mr Woods said he was concerned that the scheme Mr Callan put in train of deleting and transferring information would continue to be pursued to the detriment of Laydex.
