Former inns chief accused in Old English 'bribery' case

The former chief executive of Old English Inns has been accused of trying to "bribe" the former finance director to keep him quiet about alleged accounting irregularities.

In a case to be heard tomorrow at the High Court in London, Stuart Simpson, finance director during most of 1998, is claiming more than £70,000 in damages for wrongful dismissal. The writ claims there was at least £1.5m overstatement of profits in the 1997/98 financial year, which Mr Simpson discovered. It alleges that the chief executive at the time, Brian Warwick, offered him a £300,000 severance payment if he were to stay for a year and approve the next accounts. The writ describes this offer as "Mr Warwick's efforts to bribe [Mr Simpson]".

The writ says that a profit warning in February 1999, in which his resignation was announced, was "deliberately misleading". The company subsequently made several profit warnings, although the accounts were never restated. Mr Simpson says he resigned in January 1999 and gave 12 months' notice but the company then wrongfully termin- ated his employment in March.

A spokesperson for Greene King, which took over OEI last year, said the allegations concerned a time well before the takeover. "As new owners of OEI, we believe it is right and proper for us to defend the case."

Mr Warwick said the allegations of bribery were a "total fabrication". He added: "Our QC believes we have a very strong case. We are quite confident the action we took in dismissing him was right." Mr Warwick left in October 1999.