Branson accused of being cowardly and a liar

Richard Branson took to the witness box yesterday at a two-way libel trial centring on allegations of attempted bribery. Andrew Buncombe was in court.

Richard Branson has been called many things in his time, some complimentary and some less so. Yesterday most of the descriptions fell into the second category.

In the space of around 90 minutes he was described variously as a liar, a crass amateur, ill-informed, ill-prepared, humiliated, deluded and cowardly. The series of allegations came as Richard Ferguson QC opened his case against Mr Branson and in defence of Guy Snowden, head of US-based firm GTech, and the man the British entrepreneur said tried to bribe him. Mr Branson is suing GTech, Mr Snowden and its PR director after they dismissed his allegation of attempted bribery, while GTech is counter-suing Mr Branson over the original allegation.

In the High Court yesterday Mr Ferguson said that any attempt to try and bribe Mr Branson would have been madness. He added: "Mr Snowden did not get to the position he now occupies by being a madman."

He said if Mr Branson genuinely believed Mr Snowden had tried to bribe him, he should have said so at the time.

"He should not have waited two years before going public and then making this cowardly attempt on television, said Mr Ferguson, referring to a 1995 BBC Panorama programme in which Mr Branson made the allegation.

Mr Ferguson also scrutinised details of a note Mr Branson said he had made after the alleged bribery attempt the QC questioned whether the words `what can we do for you Richard?' amounted to a bribe.

Why did Mr Branson conclude it was a bribe, he asked. "Did he delude himself into thinking he had been the subject of a bribery attempt by this odious American? Was it easier for him to live with that mistaken conclusion than to admit he had been shown up as a crass amateur."

Mr Branson later described in detail the lunch in September 1993 involving himself, his associate John Jackson, head of Sketchleys, and Mr Snowden, a director of Camelot, the company that won the lottery franchise. He said he planned to bid to run the lottery on a non-profit making basis.

Mr Snowden tried to talk him out of this and even asked him to join his own consortium. Mr Branson said: "He was sweating, mopping his brow. He shuffled towards me and then he came out with these incredible words. `I don't know how to phrase it Richard, there is always a bottom line. I'll get to the point. In what way can we help you?'. I have never been so, what is the word ... flabbergasted. No one has ever tried to bribe me before."

Mr Branson said he asked Mr Snowden what he had meant. "His reply was, `There is always something in life everybody needs'. He replied he had no need of anything.

"John Jackson's eyebrows were hitting the ceiling," said Mr Branson. "Snowden was sweating, and mopping his forehead. There was a deathly hush. I had no wish to be in the presence of this man any longer."

Mr Branson said that he later a phone call from the publicist Sir Tim Bell on GTech's behalf saying that Mr Snowden might have said something he regretted and asked whether Mr Branson was going to the press.

Mr Branson, 47, also told the court that after Mr Snowden and his consortium were awarded the lottery contract he revealed the attempted bribe to Peter Davis, director general of the lottery watchdog Oflot.

The trial continues.