[2023] UKUT 153 (LC)

Mr Easton called Mr Gareth Woodward of BTG Advisory in Manchester to provide expert accounting evidence. Mr Woodward qualified as a chartered accountant in 1978 and since 1990 has worked full time as a forensic accountant, including the provision of expert evidence.

Ms Clutten called Mr David Epstein to give expert accounting evidence. Mr Epstein is a consultant in the forensic accounting services department of Moore Kingston Smith in London, and has over 30 years of experience in forensic accounting and dispute resolution.

The two experts agreed that their findings had been limited due to a lack of disclosure by the claimant of comparator stores data, and the general lack of detailed profit and loss accounts for individual stores. The lack of disclosure resulted from a failure to reach a consensus with the respondent on commercial confidentiality. The claimant had made available audited accounts for the company as a whole, and a simple set of annual management accounts for the Watford store covering the accounting years ending 2013 to 2020. Whilst some criticism was made by Mr Epstein of the management accounts, figures from those accounts were used by both experts in their assessments of loss, so we set them out below for clarity. The two years of partial trading caused by relocation are highlighted.