The Royal Court has been hearing more details in the case of Sovereign versus a group of former pilots, who say they’ve lost money that the firm had been managing on their behalf.
Sovereign’s Group Risk and Compliance Director Stephen Hare took the stand yesterday to be cross examined by the plaintiffs’ legal counsel.
The group of pilots, represented by Ogier, have claimed the firm mismanaged their money.
Sovereign disagrees and, represented by Walkers, the business has said it “strongly denies the allegations” and will defend itself.
When the plaintiffs set out their stall last week, they’d claimed the company had “gone to sea with a hole in their boat”, risking the pilots’ money.
The Trust Fund in question, had essentially acted as their financial safety net, incase they faced losing their licence to fly due to medical reasons.
In court last week Ogier claimed that despite warning signs from official reports, Sovereign refused to take any action to safeguard the fund, and instead continued operating even whilst knowingly losing money.
The Plaintiffs alleged that Sovereign “ignored” expert reports on the fund’s efficacy and warning signs that not enough cash was flowing in to sustain it.
The hearing is continuing this week, and speaking to the court yesterday, Mr Hare denied that the company had access to this report, claiming it was not known by, or held by the company.
Some question marks remain over whether or not the report was in possession of Sovereign, as it was said to be stored in a ‘Dropbox folder’.
Walkers has also claimed that due to certain rules of the plan, agreed by those invested in the fund, that Sovereign was not liable if the fund were no longer financially viable.
The trial is expected to continue throughout this week in Guernsey’s Royal Court.