A former top executive of Peppa Pig toys risks losing his home after being sacked for threatening his boss with a pen and losing nearly £300,000 in failed legal challenges, a court heard.
Mark Dowding, chief financial officer and company secretary of Character Group PLC, home of Peppa Pig soft toys, was sacked from his £160,000-a-year job in September 2017.
The management team were said to have ‘lost confidence’ in Mr Dowding after an employment tribunal found her ‘brandished’ a pen at his boss in a ‘threatening manner’ during a ‘heated’ exchange in August 2017.
Mr Dowding subsequently claimed he was unfairly dismissed based on fabricated allegations, arguing he ‘had been subjected to various acts of victimisation’.
But despite losing his case in 2020, the finance executive kept fighting, bringing five years worth of appeals and challenges, as well as launching a High Court claim – running up massive legal costs.
Mr Dowding still has one remaining court claim over his treatment by the company, but has now been told it will be struck out unless he stumps up the £288,000 he owes from his previous battles.
Making the order, High Court judge Richard Spearman KC said it means Mr Dowding now faces losing the pension fund which forms his only regular income ‘and maybe also his home, to meet those costs orders’.
In his ruling, he said: ‘Sophocles wrote…’It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it’. That, in my view, is the predicament in which the claimant Mr Dowding now finds himself.’
Employed by The Character Group from August 2012 to September 2017, at the time of Mr Dowding’s dismissal he was working as a group finance director on a £110,000 salary plus an additional 50 per cent bonus.
Describing the pen incident which occurred during a work-related meeting between Mr Dowding and his boss, Mr Shah, Judge Khalil said: ‘Their discussion became heated and voices were raised. The claimant accepted in evidence he raised his voice first.
‘Mr Shah also alleged that the claimant had pointed a pen towards him, causing Mr Shah to retreat. This was set out in his email, which followed this altercation on the same day.
‘In that email, Mr Shah said about the incident, ‘Your behaviour was inappropriate and unprofessional. You raised your voice towards me in a threatening manner and pointed a pen in my face whilst rolling forward towards me with your chair. I had to roll my chair back to prevent injury to my face’.’
Despite Mr Dowding claiming the pen threat was fabricated, Judge Khalil said: ‘The tribunal concludes that the incident as described by Mr Shah did occur, which included the claimant pointing towards him, brandishing a pen in a threatening manner.
‘This dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses both procedurally and substantively,’ he concluded.
An order was made last December securing the existing court bills on Mr Dowding’s £850,000 home in south London.
The case went before Judge Spearman on applications for Mr Dowding to clarify the terms of his claim, while TCG Toys asked for an order that his case be struck out completely if he doesn’t pay what he already owes.
In a judgment given this week, the judge made orders to end several elements of Mr Dowding’s claim, including his bid to sue his former boss personally as a defendant alongside the company.
Although the rest of the case can go ahead, the judge went on to make an order that it be struck out unless he pays the £288,000 he already owes.
Explaining that Mr Dowding ‘now faces losing’ both his personal pension fund and his home, Judge Spearman described Mr Dowding as being ‘in a very unhappy position’.
He added: ‘On the disclosure he has made, he can ill-afford to meet these costs liabilities: either his home may be forfeit or his pension may be forfeit – possibly, if things go on the way they have, both.
‘That is a consequence of bringing and pursuing expensive litigation which has all been unsuccessful, resulting in the costs orders.’
If Mr Dowding pays what he owes, the remaining case will return to court at a later date.
