Ousted Mission Capital founders Neil and Emma Sinclair have hit back at ‘unsubstantiated claims’ made by the company yesterday.
The Sinclairs, who are currently in the middle of a High Court battle claiming they were wrongly forced out of the AIM-listed company in February, have denied claims that they misused £35,000 of company money as personal expenditure.
Yesterday after its annual general meeting Mission said: ‘It has come to the company's attention that Mr Sinclair and Ms Sinclair had improperly applied the company's funds in certain matters of their personal expenditure (some of which have been admitted by the Sinclairs).’
But in response the Sinclairs claim the true extent of their personal spending was not revealed at the AGM.
Coffee and a haircut
‘The board refused to provide details to substantiate their statement about misuse of company property,’ they said. ‘However after demands from shareholders, they did concede that the Sinclairs had only admitted to inadvertent personal expenditure relating to one jar of coffee and one haircut not £35,000 as suggested by the statement.’
Burrow interrogated
The Sinclairs also claim that Mission non-executive director Robert Burrow was ‘interrogated’ by shareholders as to his reasons for buying more than 5m shares at 7p a share, three times their market price, two days before the AGM.
‘Mr Burrow admitted that he was aware of the results of the voting on the AGM resolutions at the time he decided to acquire more shares at above market price,’ they said.
The Sinclairs will take Mission to the High Court later this year claiming the existing board is not acting in the best interests of the company. Mission claims the company was suffering under the Sinclair’s leadership.
