A KEY Barclay brothers executive lost text messages relevant to litigation over the ownership of three landmark London hotels a month after proceedings were launched, it emerged yesterday.
Philip Peters, a key finance figure in Sir David and Sir Fredrick Barclay’s business, told the court he lost a number of text message and photographs due to a “tech failure” on his mobile phone.
Lawyers for Irish property investor Paddy McKillen had sought orders for a number of Barclay brothers executives to disclose text messages relating to the holding company Coroin, which owns London hotels Claridge’s, the Berkeley and the Connaught.
Mr McKillen, who owns 36 per cent of Coroin, has accused the Barclay brothers of unlawfully trying to acquire the company, and its ownership is now the subject of a High Court battle in London.
Mr Peters said unsuccessful attempts were made to “reinstate” the phone and denied there was an “effort to conceal texts”.
The revelation follows the court hearing last week when Richard Faber, director of the Ellerman Group and a central figure in the Barclays’ interest in Coroin, admitted he had changed his laptop and phone last year but denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Faber said his computer did not hold any work-related documents and he changed his phone because it did not work. He denied he had attempted to conceal records of text messages to Sir David Barclay.
Mr Peters told the court: “Over a weekend in November, my mobile lost all of the phone messages and texts that were on it, so I took it to work and put it in the cradle which is linked to the computer to charge it up and, when it was charged, I asked the IT guys to download the back-up that is on the computer on to my mobile phone.But unfortunately, and I was not aware, the back-up system overwrites each time the phone is connected to my computer.
“Because the phone had malfunctioned and I had lost my photographs and text messages, it had overwritten the back-up. The IT guys were unable to reinstate the phone. I was in the position where my phone was basically blank.”
Richard Hill, representing Mr McKillen, suggested there was an effort not to “retain texts that would be vital in litigation”.
Mr Peters said: “That is absolutely incorrect.”
A further Barclay brothers executive and board member of Coroin, Michael Seal, resisted notices to disclose texts from his phone as he “rarely used it for business”.
But Mr Hill then read a series of messages recovered from Mr Faber’s backed-up computer which were sent to Mr Seal’s phone. Mr Seal said: “I rarely use my phone for business purposes. There was one or two text messages but they were not relevant to the business of Coroin at all.”
Mr Seal was appointed to Coroin’s board in March last year while the Barclays were in the midst of negotiations with Mr McKillen on the ownership of the hotel.
Shortly before Mr Seal was appointed to the board, Mr Faber, also a board member, emailed him and suggested the pair “do everything they could to make things uncomfortable” for Mr McKillen after the Belfast-born investor refused to sell a stake of his ownership in the hotels.
The trial continues.
