Sequence, the 2003-acquired subsidiary of Connells, has been ordered to pay one of its former brokers £8,000 after pursuing him for breach of contract.
A county court found that Sequence had been ‘unreasonable’ in the way it had brought a case against the ex-employee for alleged breach of contract.
The company argued that Prabhakar Kapadia had taken some of the clients gained while working with them into his private work when left in 2018. It said that he broke a restrictive covenant preventing ex-employees from servicing any clients within 12 months of leaving.
Sequence, which operates under brands including Allen & Harris, Bagshaw Residential and Barnard Marcus, started a Small Claims Court case against Kapadia two years later claiming £9,500 in lost earnings. But, after it later dropped the case, Kapadia sued Sequence for £8,000 costs with Luton County Court and won.
Unreasonable
Kapadia argued he knew the clients before being employed by Sequence, and made home appointments with them in his own time. “It’s unreasonable to claim they are their clients,” he said.
A Sequence spokesperson told FTAdvisor: “We will always take appropriate steps, which might include legal action, in the event of an ex-employee’s breach of their contractual obligations.
“We are pleased that on May 9 the court only allowed a small proportion of Mr Kapadia’s costs. The decision relates to the facts of this case and the judge found that there were good grounds for issuing the proceedings in the first place.”
This is not the first time Sequence has made headlines via its mortgage broker business. In February an internal investigation was undertaken after several independent mortgage brokers accused branch staff of taking part in ‘conditional selling’.
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