Latest news with #MarkDowding
The Sun
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Ex-Peppa Pig boss ‘loses £300,000 after he was sacked for brandishing a pen at his boss' in five-year court battle
AN EX-Peppa Pig exec has lost £300,000 after being sacked for threatening his boss with pen. Mark Dowding, who earned up to £160,000 a year at toy giant The Character Group PLC, was given the boot and left with a hefty bill after a five-year court battle. The former chief financial officer, who may be forced to sell his home and pension, was dismissed in 2017 after a breakdown in trust, following a heated row with his boss where he allegedly pointed a pen in a threatening way. He took the company, makers of Peppa Pig plushies and Doctor Who toys, to an employment tribunal, claiming he was unfairly dismissed and that the pen incident was fabricated. But in 2020 Employment Judge Omar Khalil said: "The tribunal concludes that the incident as described by [Mr Dowding's boss] did occur, which included the claimant pointing towards him brandishing a pen in a threatening manner." Despite the ruling, the former Peppa Pig exec launched several appeals. LEGAL BATTLE Despite the ruling, Dowding launched several appeals and a High Court claim, running up eye-watering legal costs. One remaining claim is still live- but he's now been told it will be struck out unless he coughs up the £288,000 he owes from his failed legal bids. High Court judge Richard Spearman KC said the financial blow puts Dowding at risk of losing his £850,000 home and his pension, his only regular income. The judge quoted Greek tragedy writer Sophocles, saying: "It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it'. He added: "That, in my view, is the predicament in which the claimant Mr Dowding now finds himself." THE PEN INCIDENT Mr Dowding joined The Character Group in 2012 and was earning £110,000 plus a potential 50 per cent bonus by the time of his dismissal. The 2017 incident unfolded during a heated meeting with his boss, Mr Shah. Judge Khalil said: "Their discussion became heated and voices were raised. "The claimant accepted in evidence he raised his voice first. "Mr Shah also alleged that the claimant had pointed a pen towards him, causing Mr Shah to retreat. "This was set out in his email, which followed this altercation on the same day. "In that email, Mr Shah said: 'You raised your voice towards me in a threatening manner and pointed a pen in my face whilst rolling forward towards me with your chair. I had to roll my chair back to prevent injury to my face'.' THE FIGHT GOES ON After losing at tribunal, Dowding refused to back down, instead filing a flurry of appeals and launching a High Court claim. In December 2023, an order was made securing his legal costs against the equity in his Rotherhithe Street home in south London. Judge Spearman said: "Essentially as a result of the way in which he chose to plead his case and to contest the efforts of TCG to restrict that case to what is properly arguable, a number of substantial orders for costs were made against Mr Dowding in July 2024. "Mr Dowding sought, but was refused, permission to appeal against those orders to the Court of Appeal. "According to the disclosure Mr Dowding has provided, his only source of income is his personal pension, and his only substantial assets are his personal pension fund and the equity in his home. "He now faces losing that fund, and maybe also his home, to meet those costs orders. "He is in a very unhappy position because, on the disclosure he has made, he can ill-afford to meet these costs liabilities: either his home may be forfeit or his pension may be forfeit - possibly, if things go on the way they have, both. "That is a consequence of bringing and pursuing expensive litigation which has all been unsuccessful, resulting in the costs orders." 5
Telegraph
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Peppa Pig toy exec sacked after ‘threatening boss with a pen'
A former executive at a Peppa Pig toy company has lost almost £300,000 in legal fees after he was sacked for 'brandishing a pen' at his boss. Mark Dowding, former chief financial officer, was fired from The Character Group (TCG) PLC in 2017 after a disciplinary hearing on the basis of a breakdown of trust. The company, which also makes toys for Pokemon and Doctor Who, was then taken to an employment tribunal by Mr Dowding accused of unfair dismissal over an alleged incident where he threatened his bosses with a pen. Mr Dowding lost his claim at the tribunal in 2020, with Employment Judge Omar Khalil saying: 'The tribunal concludes that the incident as described by [Mr Dowding's boss] did occur, which included the claimant pointing towards him brandishing a pen in a threatening manner.' Mr Dowding has since been locked in a five-year court fight as he brought a series of appeals and challenges, as well as launching a High Court claim. The former executive, who was on a salary of £110,000 at the time of his dismissal, faces a bill of £288,000 to pursue his latest claim. Faces losing pension and home This week, High Court judge Richard Spearman KC ordered Mr Dowling to pay the remaining legal fees. He said it means Mr Dowding now 'faces losing' the pension fund, which forms his only regular income, and maybe also his home. The court heard that Mr Dowding was employed by The Character Group from August 2012 to September 2017. Mr Dowding took the company to an employment tribunal, claiming he was unfairly dismissed and 'had been subjected to various acts of victimisation'. However, all of his claims were dismissed. The pen incident was described in the employment tribunal judgment as 'a work-related meeting between the claimant and Mr Kiran Shah (his boss). Their discussion became heated, and voices were raised. 'Mr Shah also alleged that the claimant had pointed a pen towards him, causing Mr Shah to retreat. This was set out in his email, which followed this altercation on the same day. 'In that email, Mr Shah said about the incident, 'Your behaviour was inappropriate and unprofessional. You raised your voice towards me in a threatening manner and pointed a pen in my face whilst rolling forward towards me with your chair. I had to roll my chair back to prevent injury to my face'.' Judge Khalil concluded that the pen threat did occur, and his dismissal was reasonable. 'A very unhappy position' Mr Dowding has spent the last five years challenging that ruling and other orders, before being handed bills for around £288,000 in July 2024. With one claim still live against the company – relating to his treatment by his former employers – an order was made last December to secure the existing costs bills on Mr Dowding's £850,000 home in south London. This week, Judge Spearman made orders to end several elements of Mr Dowding's claim, including his bid to sue his former boss personally alongside the company. The judge ordered that the rest of the case be struck out unless he pays the £288,000 he already owes. 'He is in a very unhappy position because, on the disclosure he has made, he can ill-afford to meet these costs liabilities. 'That is a consequence of bringing and pursuing expensive litigation, which has all been unsuccessful, resulting in the costs orders.'
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Peppa Pig toy boss faces losing his home after being sacked for threatening his boss with a pen - then losing £300,000 in failed court bids to get his job back
A former top executive of Peppa Pig toys is at risk of losing his home after being sacked for threatening his boss with a pen and losing nearly £300,000 in failed court challenges. Mark Dowding, chief financial officer and company secretary of Character Group PLC, home of Peppa Pig soft toys, was sacked from his £160k-a-year salary job in September 2017. The management team were said to have 'lost confidence' in Mr Dowding after he was found in an employment tribunal to 'brandished' his boss with a pen in a 'threatening manner' during a 'heated' exchange in August 2017. Mr Dowding subsequently claimed he was unfairly dismissed based on fabricated allegations, arguing that he 'had been subjected to various acts of victimisation'. But despite losing his case in 2020, the finance executive kept fighting, bringing five years worth of appeals and challenges, as well as launching a High Court claim - running up massive legal costs. Mr Dowding still has one remaining court claim over his treatment by the company, but has now been told it will be struck out unless he stumps up the £288,000 he owes from his previous battles. Making the order, High Court judge Richard Spearman KC said it means Mr Dowding now 'faces losing' the pension fund which forms his only regular income 'and maybe also his home, to meet those costs orders'. In his ruling, he said: 'Sophocles wrote...'It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it'. That, in my view, is the predicament in which the claimant Mr Dowding now finds himself.' Employed by The Character Group from August 2012 to September 2017, at the time of Mr Dowding's dismissal he was working as a group finance director on a £110,000 salary plus an additional 50 per cent bonus. Describing the pen incident which occurred during a work-related meeting between Mr Dowding and his boss, Mr Shah, Judge Khalil said: 'Their discussion became heated and voices were raised. The claimant accepted in evidence he raised his voice first. 'Mr Shah also alleged that the claimant had pointed a pen towards him, causing Mr Shah to retreat. This was set out in his email, which followed this altercation on the same day. 'In that email, Mr Shah said about the incident, 'Your behaviour was inappropriate and unprofessional. You raised your voice towards me in a threatening manner and pointed a pen in my face whilst rolling forward towards me with your chair. I had to roll my chair back to prevent injury to my face'.' Despite Mr Dowding claiming that such pen threat was fabricated, Judge Khalil said: 'The tribunal concludes that the incident as described by Mr Shah did occur, which included the claimant pointing towards him, brandishing a pen in a threatening manner. 'This dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses both procedurally and substantively,' he concluded. An order was made last December securing the existing court bills on Mr Dowding's £850,000 home in Rotherhithe Street, south London. The case went before Judge Spearman on applications for Mr Dowding to clarify the terms of his claim, while TCG Toys asked for an order that his case be struck out completely if he doesn't pay what he already owes. In a judgment given this week, the judge made orders to end several elements of Mr Dowding's claim, including his bid to sue his former boss personally as a defendant alongside the company. Although the rest of the case can go ahead, the judge went on to make an order that it be struck out unless he pays the £288,000 he already owes. Explaining that Mr Dowding 'now faces losing' both his personal pension fund and his home, Judge Spearman described Mr Dowding as being 'in a very unhappy position'. He added: 'On the disclosure he has made, he can ill-afford to meet these costs liabilities: either his home may be forfeit or his pension may be forfeit - possibly, if things go on the way they have, both. 'That is a consequence of bringing and pursuing expensive litigation which has all been unsuccessful, resulting in the costs orders.' If Mr Dowding pays what he owes, the remaining case will return to court at a later date.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Oil, war and tariffs tear up markets' central bank roadmap
Investor unease about an increasingly uncertain environment is rising, as Norway's shock rate cut on Thursday highlights how US tariffs, Middle East conflict and a shaky dollar make global monetary policy and inflation even harder to predict. Norway's crown slid roughly 1 per cent against the dollar and the euro in a sign of how unexpected the move was. And Switzerland, which cut borrowing costs to 0 per cent on Thursday, confounded some expectations among traders for a return to negative rates in the deflation-hit nation, as its central bank warned of a cloudy global outlook. Just a day earlier the US Federal Reserve kept rates on hold and chair Jerome Powell said "no one" had conviction on the rate path ahead. The conclusion for markets: monetary policy uncertainty is one more headwind to navigate against a backdrop of geopolitical and trade risks. Global stocks pulled away from recent peaks, a gauge of expected volatility in European equities touched a two-month high as stocks across the region fell and government bonds, usually geopolitical risk havens, sold off. "We're at a moment of considerable policy and macro uncertainty," said BlueBay chief investment officer at RBC Global Asset Management Mark Dowding. "We can't see a clear trend on interest rates," he added, which meant he was holding back from active market bets across the group's investment portfolios. Volatility was set to rise, some investors said, because a choppy dollar and oil prices whipped around by geopolitics meant that central banks were far less able to provide markets and investors a clear route map for the future. "You cannot just take your cues from the central banks anymore as they are facing a harder job of reading the economy themselves," T.S. Lombard director of European and global macro Davide Oneglia said. Broken models Rate-cutting European central banks are not just diverging from the Fed, which is grappling with the inflationary risks of President Donald Trump's tariffs. They are also struggling to navigate a new era where the dollar, the lynchpin of world trade, commodity prices and asset valuations, has turned weaker and more volatile under trade war stress and government debt anxiety. "That's a massive, massive fundamental shift in global markets that everyone is trying to assess," Monex Europe head of Macro Research Nick Rees said. "All of those standard economic rules of thumb we use for forecasting are completely broken right now." The dollar is down almost 9 per cent against other major currencies this year but has risen following the outbreak of a war between Israel and Iran. European Central Bank policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday the ECB might have to adapt its rate cut plans if oil price volatility was long-lasting. The new status quo in markets could well be an era of central bank surprises that create rapid shifts in the market narrative, asset pricing and volatility trends, analysts said. "We're getting into this next cycle in which variables are much more volatile, because, rather than (monetary policy) being just easily predictable, events just take over and policy and human factors, as we now know with Donald Trump, play an important role," Oneglia said. Norway's surprise cut came because the crown was a "runaway top currency" of the trade-war era, added Societe Generale's head of FX strategy Kit Juckes. With investors chasing around the world to identify stores of wealth that are not US dollars, meanwhile, the Swiss franc has soared, cutting the costs of imports and pushing the economy into deflation. On Thursday, the franc rose against the dollar as traders saw the SNB's cut as too small to keep deflation at bay. Ninety One multi-asset head John Stopford said the hazard risk was rising for global stocks and that options products that aim to offer protection from incoming volatility looked fairly cheap. He was buying bonds issued in nations where inflation and rates could come down materially, such as New Zealand, but was negative on longer-dated US Treasuries and German Bunds where economic uncertainty was higher and government borrowing was likely to rise. Global stocks remain almost 20 per cent above their April trough, after investors relaxed about tariffs. Stopford said there was more to worry about in the short term. "The stock market feels like it's a thatched house in a hot country with a fire hazard risk, and people aren't charging much to insure the house," Stopford added.
Zawya
20-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Oil, war and tariffs tear up markets' central bank roadmap
LONDON - Investor unease about an increasingly uncertain environment is rising, as Norway's shock rate cut on Thursday highlights how U.S. tariffs, Middle East conflict and a shaky dollar make global monetary policy and inflation even harder to predict. Norway's crown slid roughly 1% against the dollar and the euro in a sign of how unexpected the move was. And Switzerland, which cut borrowing costs to 0% on Thursday, confounded some expectations among traders for a return to negative rates in the deflation-hit nation, as its central bank warned of a cloudy global outlook. Just a day earlier the U.S. Federal Reserve kept rates on hold and chair Jerome Powell said "no one" had conviction on the rate path ahead. The conclusion for markets: monetary policy uncertainty is one more headwind to navigate against a backdrop of geopolitical and trade risks. Global stocks pulled away from recent peaks, a gauge of expected volatility in European equities touched a two-month high as stocks across the region fell and government bonds, usually geopolitical risk havens, sold off. "We're at a moment of considerable policy and macro uncertainty," said BlueBay chief investment officer at RBC Global Asset Management Mark Dowding. "We can't see a clear trend on interest rates," he added, which meant he was holding back from active market bets across the group's investment portfolios. Volatility was set to rise, some investors said, because a choppy dollar and oil prices whipped around by geopolitics meant that central banks were far less able to provide markets and investors a clear route map for the future. "You cannot just take your cues from the central banks anymore as they are facing a harder job of reading the economy themselves," T.S. Lombard director of European and global macro Davide Oneglia said. BROKEN MODELS Rate-cutting European central banks are not just diverging from the Fed, which is grappling with the inflationary risks of President Donald Trump's tariffs. They are also struggling to navigate a new era where the dollar, the lynchpin of world trade, commodity prices and asset valuations, has turned weaker and more volatile under trade war stress and government debt anxiety. "That's a massive, massive fundamental shift in global markets that everyone is trying to assess," Monex Europe head of Macro Research Nick Rees said. "All of those standard economic rules of thumb we use for forecasting are completely broken right now." The dollar is down almost 9% against other major currencies this year but has risen following the outbreak of a war between Israel and Iran. European Central Bank policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday the ECB might have to adapt its rate cut plans if oil price volatility was long-lasting. The new status quo in markets could well be an era of central bank surprises that create rapid shifts in the market narrative, asset pricing and volatility trends, analysts said. "We're getting into this next cycle in which variables are much more volatile, because, rather than (monetary policy) being just easily predictable, events just take over and policy and human factors, as we now know with Donald Trump, play an important role," Oneglia said. Norway's surprise cut came because the crown was a "runaway top currency" of the trade-war era, added Societe Generale's head of FX strategy Kit Juckes. With investors chasing around the world to identify stores of wealth that are not U.S. dollars, meanwhile, the Swiss franc has soared, cutting the costs of imports and pushing the economy into deflation. On Thursday, the franc rose against the dollar as traders saw the SNB's cut as too small to keep deflation at bay. Ninety One multi-asset head John Stopford said the hazard risk was rising for global stocks and that options products that aim to offer protection from incoming volatility looked fairly cheap. He was buying bonds issued in nations where inflation and rates could come down materially, such as New Zealand, but was negative on longer-dated U.S. Treasuries and German Bunds where economic uncertainty was higher and government borrowing was likely to rise. Global stocks remain almost 20% above their April trough, after investors relaxed about tariffs. Stopford said there was more to worry about in the short term. "The stock market feels like it's a thatched house in a hot country with a fire hazard risk, and people aren't charging much to insure the house," Stopford added. (Reporting by Naomi Rovnick and Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Toby Chopra)
