UK Coal accused of trying to 'bully' mine firm out of business

Britain's biggest pit operator, UK Coal, has been accused of using illegal "bullying" tactics in an attempt to drive a specialist mining company out of business.

A High Court judge has told UK Coal, which took over most of the privatised mining industry, that the complainant had "solid grounds" for its suspicions that the mining giant colluded in a plan to damage it.

Judge Seymour ordered the coal company to produce internal documents which, it is alleged, may prove that there was a conspiracy to undermine SES, a tunnelling contractor based in York.

The court heard that UK Coal created Cen-tech, a new subsidiary which used illegally obtained information to out-bid SES for work at Kellingley colliery in North Yorkshire. After being awarded the contract, Cen-tech tried to recruit the SES workforce to undertake the project, the court was told.

The UK Coal subsidiary then allegedly offered Bill Shinkins, chairman of SES, £1 for his company, telling him that the firm had no future in mining.

Mr Shinkins said: "I felt as if they were using bullying tactics to acquire my company. I met my colleagues and suggested to them that I thought we had two clear choices: lie down and die, or stand up and fight."

Unusually, costs in the region of £130,000 were awarded to Mr Shinkins for the application.

A spokesman for UK Coal denied using bullying tactics. "It's not the way we do business. We are simply attempting to run our business in the most cost-effective way pos- sible, utilising wherever we can our own resources.

"The closures of mines over the last two years has resulted in there being available a pool of skilled craftsmen capable of doing the work undertaken by SES."

All the documents the court had ordered would be produced by the end of next week, he said.

SES will then decide whether to start proceedings against UK Coal.