7:08 am, June 23, 2025
Former Big Motoring World boss Peter Waddell has found himself back in the headlines as his legal battle with the used car supermarket group continues.
Waddell was ousted from the company he founded in April of last year, following multiple complaints relating to his conduct at work.
The 59-year-old has continued to strenuously deny any wrongdoing and has since embarked on an increasingly bitter legal battle against Big Motoring World’s current bosses – investment group Freshstream.
Car Dealer spent two days in the High Court last May as Waddell unsuccessfully applied for a temporary injunction which would have seen him handed back voting and information rights as shareholder of the business, ahead of a full trial.
Since then, Waddell has also launched an unfair dismissal claim and the saga is now attracting attention in the national press.
A report in the Guardian over the weekend says that Waddell remains determined to have his day in court, with the 59-year-old telling the publication: ‘The allegations are fake. We will prove it in the court case.’
During the previous hearing, attended by Car Dealer last year, the court was told that an internal investigation had found Waddell guilty of ‘bullying’, ‘harassment’ and ‘intimidation’.
His conduct was described in court as ‘abusive, racist, sexist, misogynistic and irrational’ and the Guardian has now quoted legal papers, which reveal more alleged comments. Waddell denies the allegations.
Defence filings submitted to the High Court by a Freshstream holding company say: ‘Serious instances of racism including allegedly referring to Hindu people as [the car marque] “Hyundais”.’
‘Serious allegations of sexual harassment including allegedly … telling a female cleaner: ‘I bet you’d like to suck my d**k?’”
The papers go on to allege that Waddell called ‘senior members of the management team the “C word”,’ and suggested ‘he would “give it to them up the a**e”.’
Overall, Freshstream is said to have investigated 27 allegations, some of which Waddell denies and some of which he claims were taken out of context.
Investigation ‘very questionable’
Since being ousted from Big Motoring World, Waddell has raised multiple concerns about the investigation which resulted in his departure.
Last May, his lawyers described the process as being ‘very questionable‘.
The court was told that the inquiry began on March 7, 2024 – the day Waddell was appearing on stage at our Car Dealer Live event as a headline speaker – with Waddell’s solicitors asking for full details of the allegations on March 13.
After making further chases on March 18, they were told a day later that it would be ‘inappropriate’ to provide details of the allegations to Waddell and his team.
Waddell was later signed off sick by a doctor, and despite being ‘eager to co-operate with the investigation’, his requests for more time to respond were denied.
His lawyer at the time, Paul Chaisty KC, said the independent investigator was then ‘instructed to come to a conclusion’ on April 9 despite having concerns that he had not yet spoken to Waddell.
When asked by the judge if he thought the investors had been motivated by a desire to get rid of Waddell, Chaisty replied: ‘Absolutely.’
‘The investigation should have been undertaken within the basic principles of justice,’ he later added.
More recently, in his unfair dismissal claim, Waddell said that the investigation, carried out by Nicholas Siddall KC, was ‘flawed’ and that its timetable was ‘unreasonably short, unfair, and discriminatory’.
He added that he was not allowed a proper opportunity to respond to the allegations and that decision to remove him was ‘pre-determined’.
The documents later added: ‘The claimant [Waddell] is partially deaf and, as a result, a lot of the time he can appear to be shouting, but this is due to his physical impairment which means he cannot easily recognise the volume of his own speech.
‘The claimant often speaks at a higher volume, which would appear to be shouting to someone without his disability.
‘The claimant’s dyslexia means that he regularly mixes up words and gets names and words muddled. The claimant uses nicknames to help him remember people.’
Siddall’s investigation ran to 138 pages, with 22 sources interviewed. That number did not include Waddell himself, with Freshstream claiming that giving the KC extra time to interview the former boss would be an ‘intolerable risk’.
What next?
The Guardian reports that Waddell’s case is now likely to be heard in the High Court in 2026.
The paper also says that it has spoken to other entrepreneurs who have made ‘comparable allegations’, claiming that ‘various investors had attempted to oust them from their companies’.
It says that the claims were made by ‘four other British founders of startup businesses’ but were never tested in court.
It all means that Waddell’s case could prove to be a landmark case with repercussions far beyond the automotive industry.
