1:15 pm, March 12, 2026
Customer review scores for Big Motoring World fell on Trustpilot after founder Peter Waddell was forced out of the company, the High Court heard yesterday (March 11).
Freshstream director James Cartwright accepted under cross-examination by Waddell’s lawyer that this was the case after Waddell left the business in March 2024.
However, he disputed this was an accurate view of customer service in the business as he claimed under Waddell’s leadership ‘reviewers had been incentivised to leave positive feedback’.
He said: ‘That is true, and, my Lord, the reason for that is because the practices being undertaken under Mr Waddell’s leadership were improper and we were inappropriately incentivising customers to provide positive reviews and TrustPilot subsequently outlawed or there were – they instructed us to immediately stop those practices.’
When challenged by Alan Gourgey KC, though, Cartwright could not provide any first-hand evidence that Waddell had encouraged this, instead saying his understanding came from review data and discussions with management.
The court heard a statement from Cartwright adding that Laurence Vaughan and Tom Clarke had to work with Enfield Trading Standards to ‘clean up the mess’.
The court also heard that Big Motoring World faced cash constraints during 2024 after Waddell left that affected its ability to buy vehicle stock.
‘My understanding is that at various points through the course of 2024, the business was cash constrained, which meant that it could not buy sufficient stock,’ Cartwright told the court.
Gourgey also asked if the CarShop acquisition in July 2024 had worsened the situation. Cartwright told the court that ‘yes, that was one of the factors’ due to ‘legal fees’ and ‘other exceptional costs’.
Waddell’s lawyers suggested that it was always Freshstream’s plan to remove him as CEO.
Witness Gilles Gradassi, from Freshstream, was shown a number of allegations against Waddell including ‘repeated acts of sexism and racism’, ‘bullying two directors’ and ‘multiple examples of key team members in tears because of conduct’ but he confirmed to the court that they did not investigate these allegations immediately.
The court also heard from Freshstream investor Adam McLain about the decision making process from the board to begin the investigation into Waddell in March 2024.
The court heard that the meeting where they approved the investigation lasted only ‘five or 10 minutes’.
McLain said he felt the allegations against Waddell were serious enough to risk Big Motoring World and Freshstream’s own reputation, but admitted that directors did not examine each allegation during the meeting.
When asked if they had taken into account the reputation, McLain told the court: ‘[When speaking with his lawyers] we did conclude that it was appropriate to submit the investigation notice and then what I considered from a reputational standpoint, as I said in my witness statement, is both the reputation – both whether it had historically and was reasonably likely to on a forward looking basis have a material adverse effect on the company or the investor, which is what the test actually says.
‘So it’s not just historic limited to the company, as was in Mr Gourgey’s question. What we considered was, you know, at a bunch of levels, first of all, very crude, Daily Mail test.
‘If this list of things appeared in the Daily Mail, it’s a horrific list of things. It’s four pages long full of all kinds of terrible, terrible behaviour. If this list appeared in the Daily Mail as, this is what the CEO of this company does, this investee company of Freshstream does, what consequence would that have for the reputation of the company or the investor? It would be catastrophic.
‘Our own investors would not tolerate this whatsoever. Our own employees would not accept this. The company’s employees, its counterparties, what would its suppliers, its financiers think if this was the list of things that was presented.
‘It was very obvious to us that it was going to be adverse in a material way to the reputation of both the investor and the company.’
The case continues.
The trial so far…
- Peter Waddell says he was victim of Big Motoring World ‘coup’ as High Court trial gets underway
- Waddell ran ‘fiefdom’ and complained about ‘too many muslims’, court hears
- Peter Waddell accused of using disabilities as a ‘fig leaf’ as High Court trial continues
- ‘I wish I’d never sold to them’: Waddell tells court of regret in selling Big Motoring World
- Peter Waddell nicknamed employee ‘Ching the P***’ because ‘his father ran a corner shop’, court hears
- Daksh Gupta held talks over becoming Big Motoring World CEO after Marshall departure
- Weekly Briefing: High Court hears there was ANOTHER bidder for Big Motoring World
- Laurence Vaughan accused of being ‘paid by two masters’ as ‘secret’ payment is revealed
- Freshstream planned leadership change at Big Motoring World months before Waddell’s exit, court hears
- Waddell kept in the dark over misconduct allegations as investigation faces scrutiny
