Ken Bates ‘made Leeds director feel like fugitive’

Details of the proposal emerged yesterday on the third day of a courtroom battle between Mr Bates and Yorkshire businessman Melvyn Levi, who was awarded £50,000 damages in 2009 after the chairman wrote libellous remarks about him in the club’s matchday programme.

Mr Levi and his wife Carole have brought Mr Bates back to court to seek damages for harassment from him, Leeds United and Yorkshire Radio, the radio station which broadcasts live commentary of the club’s matches.

The couple, who claim Mr Bates has “ruined their lives”, have also applied for an injunction against the chairman to prevent further harassment.

The long-running dispute between the two men began shortly after Mr Bates bought the club in January 2005 from the Yorkshire Consortium, of which Mr Levi was a member.

Leeds County Court heard yesterday from Jersey-based solicitor Hiren Mistry, who was instructed by the club as it sought to serve Mr Levi with a writ in December 2010.

Mr Bates was pursuing legal action for more than £190,000 which the chairman claims is owed to the club by Mr Levi and his business partner, Robert Weston.

Papers were served on Mr Weston without any problems but, when a process server arrived at Mr Levi’s home, the former director was not in.

The process server enquired whether he could leave the papers in Mr Levi’s letterbox, but it was decided that they should be handed to him personally, the court heard.

Mr Mistry told the hearing it was suggested to him that Mrs Levi, who was at the house, had been “evasive” when asked by the process server where her husband was. He said the papers had to be served “urgently” because any delay in the legal proceedings would be “costly” to the club.

But Mr Mistry agreed he did not ask for another attempt to be made, even after the club’s chief executive Shaun Harvey rang to say that Mr Levi had been spotted in a Leeds restaurant.

Simon Myerson QC, for the Levis, asked Mr Mistry: “Is it because Mr Bates had told you there would be announcements on Yorkshire Radio every day for two weeks, offering dinner for two for information provided?”

Mr Mistry said: “He did tell me that, yes.”

Mr Myerson continued: “Is it the case Mr Bates said ‘Don’t worry about service. We are going to put a radio announcement out’?”

“Absolutely not,” Mr Mistry replied. “Procedure is procedure.”

The court has heard that Yorkshire Radio broadcast an announcement during Leeds’s home match against Leicester City on Boxing Day 2010, asking anyone who knew Mr Levi’s whereabouts to contact the club.

A similar announcement was made during or before the club’s match against Middlesbrough at Elland Road on New Year’s Day in 2011.

Listeners who heard the announcements “assumed I was some sort of fugitive”, Mr Levi said in a witness statement.

Mr Bates, who did not attend court yesterday, has dismissed as “rubbish” suggestions he used his column programme to pursue a personal “vendetta” against Mr Levi.

Court papers show Leeds’s legal action against Mr Levi and Mr Weston relates to a sum of £190,400 allegedly owed to the club by Admatch, a Jersey company wholly owned by Mr Weston.

Admatch acted as an agent to Leeds from 2004, selling match and season tickets at a time when major credit card companies were “apparently unwilling” to do business with the club because of its perilous financial position.

The agreement was terminated after Mr Bates took control of the club. The hearing continues.