Following the unexpected resignation of our policyholder's head housekeeper to take up alternative employment, our policyholder was surprised to be the subject of a claim for alleged Constructive Dismissal on the grounds of sexual harassment. The ex-employee alleged she had been subjected to sexual comments and advances from the hotel manager that had made her position intolerable.

DAS appointed Solicitors who, finding the ex-employee's representative evasive on the details of the alleged incidents, undertook a considerable amount of investigative work to try to establish the dates of the alleged incidents and names of the witnesses.

This was a highly complex claim with the ex-employee seeking £12,000 in compensation.

On the day of the Industrial Tribunal the case was settled before the hearing started, when the policyholder agreed to pay the ex-employee the sum of £2,000. This was considered to be an extremely satisfactory conclusion, particlularly as there was every indication that the case could have gone on for 4 to 5 days.

DAS paid the costs involved which amounted to £12,810

Due to reduced interest in a number of courses, our policyholder found it necessary to reduce the number of lectures in the affected division of their college. Selection criteria for redundancy was agree upon in consultation with the union. One year's notice was subsequently given to the selected lecturer who objected strongly to the action taken and took the case to an Industrial Tribunal. Solicitors were appointed on behalf of the college. The hearing lasted three days and the tribunal held that there had been a redundancy situation, that the selection criteria had been fair and that there had been sufficient consultation before dismissal. This case had been of some concern to our policyholder being the first occasion on which they had been forced to make compulsory redundancies and also draft selection criteria. They were therefore very pleased with the outcome of the case.

Legal costs incurred in representing the policyholder amounted to £5,500

Following the failure of their accounts manager to transfer accounting information on to the computer, despite assurances that the job was underway and deadlines would be met, there was a disciplinary hearing at which he was invited to resign and work one month's notice or have his employment terminated. When he refused to resign, our policyholder terminated his employment and paid him only what he was due up to the day he left their employment. The ex-employee alleged unfair dismissal and applied to the Industrial Tribunal. DAS appointed solicitors to act on our policyholder's behalf. After a full day's hearing, the claim for Unfair Dismissal was rejected. However the Industrial Tribunal did find that in fairness, our policyholder ought to have paid the ex-employee up until the end of the month, therefore an award of £1,328.00 in compensation was made.

DAS paid both the solicitors costs of £4,206.86 and the £1,328.00 compensation.

i) VAT DISPUTE

Following a routine VAT inspection Customs & Excise wrote to our policyholder advising that they were of the opinion that zero rating of fees charged to overseas companies in respect of taxation work relating to rental income from investment properties in the UK was incorrect. They took the view that the taxation work supplied should attract standard VAT rates and not be classed as zero rated. As a result they issued an assessment for the sum of £9,941 for outstanding VAT due. Our policyholder wished to appeal against this assessment and submitted his claim under his DAS poliy. The case proceeded to a full VAT Tribunal hearing, where our policyholder won his case. It was held that zero rate should continue to apply to those invoices for overseas companies. The importance of wining this case was not only would our policyholder not have to pay the £9,941 assessment, but there was no need to increase his VAT liability for future invoices.

The accountant fees of £9,854 were paid under the DAS policy

Following receipt of our policyholder's year end company accounts the Inland Revenue decided to carry out an in-depth investigation. The reasons given for this were the erratic business performance judged by gross profit and the general level of directors remuneration. Although the policyholder's own accountant was initially appointed, when matters did not seem to be progressing, our policyholder requested a change of accountant. DAS appointed a panel accountant who could see immediately that the Inland Revenue's position had become very entrenched during the 3 years the investigation had been running. They arranged several meetings with the policyholder and Inspector of Taxes and undertook a considerable amount of work analysing and preparing the policyholder's statements. Following this, they were able to refute all the Revenue's arguments and eventually the case was settled on a minor technical adjustment. Our policyholders expressed themselves as delighted with this outcome.

DAS paid the costs incurred by both accountants plus those of the self-employed company director - whose assistance had been instrumental in reducing costs, which totalled £12,721