Mr Justice Marcus Smith ruled that Peter Waddell was ousted from Big Motoring World after Freshstream carried out a pre-conceived and orchestrated plan. He also found that Waddell was properly dismissed for gross misconduct, settling the control dispute over a business described as worth £300m.
The judge said Freshstream’s plan worked backwards from its aim of permanent control and Waddell’s removal without exercising the call option. Freshstream said it remains in control of the business; Waddell said justice had been done and that he wanted to reacquire the company.
Big Motoring World in 2021
Big Motoring World’s 2021 annual accounts showed 525 employees, £371m in revenues and £6.6m in profits. Those figures explain why the ruling goes beyond an employment dispute: it decides who controls a large used-car business after Waddell was forced out as chief executive in 2024.
Freshstream acquired about a third of Big Motoring World in April 2022 and obtained the option of eventually acquiring Waddell’s remaining shares. The dispute later turned on how that shareholders’ arrangement was used, and whether control could shift before the option was exercised.
Mr Justice Marcus Smith
Marcus Smith wrote that he had found “the formation and execution of a pre-conceived and orchestrated plan which worked backwards from Freshstream’s aim of achieving permanent control of, and Mr Waddell’s removal from, the business without having to exercise the call option.” He also said: “Without question, there were matters that should – long before this point in time – have resulted in some form of disciplinary process against Mr Waddell, hopefully not resulting in dismissal but in imposing limits on someone who was (for all his serious faults) the gifted and duly appointed [chief executive] of Big.”
He added that “Freshstream allowed Waddell’s behaviour “to continue, unchecked, until Freshstream was in a position to cause Mr Waddell’s exclusion from Big”.” The judgment leaves Freshstream in control for now, while Waddell’s push to buy the company back depends on the value and transfer of the shares tied to the dispute.
Freshstream and Peter Waddell
Waddell said his manner of speaking was known to Freshstream before it bought its initial stake, and he said “justice had been done.” Freshstream responded that Waddell was rightly dismissed for gross misconduct, including repeated acts of bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment.
The practical result is that Waddell has won a finding that Freshstream engineered his removal, but he has not overturned the dismissal itself. That split outcome keeps control with Freshstream and leaves Waddell’s attempt to reacquire Big Motoring World as the unresolved fight that matters next.
