Wetherspoon awarded £7.5m in fraud case against property agent

JD Wetherspoon has been awarded £4.5m in damages and almost £3m in costs against former property advisor Van de Berg (VdB) and its three directors Christian Braun, George Aldridge and Richard Harvey.

The award - around 80% of the damages Wetherspoon claimed and around 80% of the cost of the litigation - follows the pub operator's High Court victory over the property agent in a fraud case last month.

The court ruled that Wetherspoon had been defrauded by VdB in a series of property deals whereby freehold pubs where diverted to third parties, rather than bringing them first to the pub company, as its retainer required.

However, reports have raised doubts over whether Wetherspoon will ever see the money it has been awarded because all three defendants claim they are unable to pay.

A Wetherspoon source told the Morning Advertiser: "All the defendants said they've got no money but we never expected them to stand on their doorsteps handing us a cheque."

Wetherspoon is expected to employ forensic accountants in an attempt to trace assets of the defendants.

The pub operator is also considering legal action against a number of the third parties who profited after freeholds were diverted to them by Van de Berg.

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By Daniel Thomas

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