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A judge has sharply criticised the police for investigating a family feud in which a dispute between a mother and daughter began when one left their joint business and set up a rival estate agency.

EAT has already reported on the heated row between Nicola Low, 71, and her daughter, Caroline Baines, 40, after the latter complained about the allegedly low level of her maternity pay when she was a member of the family estate agency.

Baines - who now runs Mint Lettings and Management - sued Low for £150,000 and also accused her of harassment and of making malicious complaints about her to police. In a counter-claim, Low sued her daughter for £100,000 for setting up a new agency and allegedly stealing clients.

Now Judge Richard Seymour QC has described the contents of a police statement used during the case as outrageous and had claimed it contains a number of barefaced lies. The fact that Hertfordshire Police even pursued the complaint was not a tribute to the intelligence of the officers concerned explained the judge.

The judge has dismissed the claims by both mother and daughter.

The pair initially worked together to run the Halcyon House agency until they began quarrelling in 2010. Baines had expected her normal four-figure monthly wage while on maternity leave but was told she would receive only statutory maternity pay, in line with other staff.

Low was accused of allegedly criticising her daughter's work just two weeks after she had emergency caesarean surgery. Baines then allegedly went on to set up a rival estate agency.

Low accused her daughter of making use of confidential information to steal clients, but the judge ruled that Baines had not breached her contract or duties as a director.

Also dismissing Baines' harassment claim, he said some of her accusations against her mother were "frankly ludicrous".

"Irritating, annoying, unattractive or unreasonable" behaviour could not, by itself, amount to harassment, he said, nor could the sort of "manoeuvring for commercial advantage" which was only to be expected in the the world of estate agency, the judge claimed.

Comments

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    Wow, this has become even more of a circus than the first time I heard about this story. Just a family spat blow way out of proportion by mixing business and family that has roped in judges and police too! What a shame.

    • 15 July 2014 12:44 PM
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