Big Motoring World executives mocked ‘rude a****ole’ Peter Waddell in WhatsApp groups

Yesterday (Mar 17), the court heard evidence from Tom Clarke, who worked at the used car supermarket group as a general counsel and sat on the investigation committee into Waddell. During proceedings, he was questioned on a series of internal WhatsApp messages in which executives took ‘potshots’ at Waddell. The court was shown several messages from a private WhatsApp group involving Clarke and other senior figures, including Huma Rather and Sophie Hazell. In one exchange, Clarke sarcastically referred to the 59-year-old as ‘poor Peter’ before adding that he was a ‘massive drain’ and describing him as ‘completely nuts’. In other messages, the CEO was described by senior colleagues as a ‘f***ing idiot’ and a ‘rude a****ole’. During cross-examination Clarke admitted to using unprofessional language but insisted the messages were limited to private groups with a small number of colleagues. Questioning the witness, Waddell’s barrister, Alan Gourgey KC, said: ‘This is senior management, is it not, mocking the CEO of the business in pretty crude terms?’ He added: ‘This is how you and your colleagues were speaking about the man who founded the company.’ The court heard that Clarke was in one group named ‘Mission Impossible’, which he described as a ‘support
Read More