LODESTAR DIRECTORS ORDERED TO PAY DAMAGES TO FORMER EMPLOYER

Directors of the fixed-premium P&I start-up Lodestar have been ordered to pay £314,030 ($492m) in damages to their former employer British Marine – a subsidiary of QBE – following a final High Court judgement. Charles Dymoke, John Hearn and Steven Kirk were found to have breached the terms of their contracts with British Marine when they tried to establish Lodestar. Justice Haddon-Cave affirmed his decision to stop the three trading under the Lodestar name before April 28 2012 – 12 months after their resignation. The three are reported to have applied for permission to appeal. The judgement called the business plan of "Project Phoenix", as Lodestar was initially called, "simple and ruthless: to hollow out by stealth British Marine's underwriting and claims teams and move them across, together with their books and clients and data, to a new, ready-made turnkey vehicle, financed by Pro Insurance Services, a subsidiary of Tawa, secured by RSA with up to $500m cover, owned and controlled by the defendants, which would steadily acquire British Marine's business, starting with the 2012 renewals". Justice Haddon-Cave said that without exception he preferred QBE's evidence, and that the plan was in effect to "acquire British Marine's business by stealth and without paying for it".