Baldwins has won a court case against former employee, chartered accountant Andrew John Maidstone

Ashby based Andrew John Maidstone was charged with trying to poach back clients from the company he sold to Baldwins for £1 million.

Mr Maidstone sold his accountancy business to Baldwins in 2007, promising not to “canvass, solicit or endeavour to entice” his former clients away for at least three years. After a 12 month break, Mr Maidstone took up a new business position at Baldwins in November 2008. However, just a month later, during December 2008, he met with two partners from rival accountancy firm, Charnwoods in Loughborough, to discuss working for them on a 20% commission for ‘new clients introduced’ which he described as “success based remuneration”.

After an email exchange in March 2009 between Mr Maidstone and Charnwoods in which details of the “agreement” were finalised, Mr Maidstone then dropped to part time working at Baldwins, eventually leaving in November of that year after receiving his final payment under the sale agreement. Baldwins stated that during that period, Mr Maidstone was working to lure clients away to Charnwoods.

Judge Simon Brown QC sitting in the high court, found Mr Maidstone guilty of contravening the sale agreement and endangering the goodwill of the firm. He described the 46 year-old as “devious and arrogant” and that “he was intending to have his cake and eat it – to use the vernacular: i.e. greedy”. He further commented that his behaviour had been “reprehensible” and that he was a “dishonest and unreliable witness”. He also added that witnesses – including Mr Barnett, a partner at Charnwoods – were “unreliable”. Furthermore, he said that the evidence of both Mr Maidstone and Mr Barnett was “collusive and highly improbable”.

The Judge concluded that Mr Maidstone “intended to solicit his former clients and entice them away to become clients of Charnwoods.”

David Baldwin a partner at Baldwins commented; “I’m glad this is now all over and justice has been done. I know we all want to concentrate on continuing to give a good local service to the businesses in the Ashby area without the distraction of this case hanging over our heads.”