Entrepreneur claims financier destroyed her business after complaint about his behaviour

Attempt allegedly made to ‘suffocate and kill’ company following ‘major falling out’

A finance boss “destroyed” an entrepreneur’s bamboo electric toothbrush company after she complained about his behaviour, a court has heard.
David Slinger, 71, co-director of corporate finance company Synergy in Trade faces allegations from businesswoman Sophie Perhar, 46, that he had “improper motives” for calling in administrators to “suffocate and kill” her business  after the pair had “a major falling out”.
London’s High Court heard that Mrs Perhar launched The Sustainable Bathroom Company in January 2019 as a wholesaler of environmentally friendly bathroom products developed by herself. By early 2022, the company had a supply agreement with Aldi, the German supermarket chain.
In April of that year, Synergy agreed to lend the company up to £350,000 over three years to meet manufacturing costs in return for a 30 per cent share of profits.
The toothbrushes were made in China and supplied to Aldi, with payments from the retailer due to go into an account controlled by Synergy, so that the finance company could be paid back.
But Aldi were provided with the wrong bank details and payments for more than €500,000 went into another business account controlled by Mrs Perhar instead. Mrs Perhar then went on to pay out around €329,644 from the account to meet other “urgent” debts, the court heard.
Subsequently, on 5 June last year, she received a demand for repayment of the loan, plus interest, on the basis that she had breached the terms of her company’s borrowing agreement.
Just three hours later, Mr Slinger, acting as a secured creditor, put The Sustainable Bathroom Company into administration.
Mrs Perhar is now suing, claiming that Synergy had “approved” her making the payments, rather than transferring the money to her lender.
She told Mr Justice Michael Green that she believes Synergy had no legal right to put her company into administration and that Mr Slinger appointed administrators for “vindictive” and “improper” reasons – allegations which his barrister James Morgan KC told the judge are “hotly contested.”
She told the judge he was “very angry” with her after she “went to his female business partner and complained about his inappropriate conduct” towards her.
The full details of the alleged conduct have not been made public, but she told the judge Mr Slinger had made “veiled threats that he could ruin my business, whilst at the same time talking to me inappositely about his personal life”.
In her written submissions, Mrs Perhar argued that the administration order was “unlawful,” adding: “The nature of the business was trading with large supermarkets and the day the company was put into administration Mr Slinger knew that this business was instantly suffocated and killed.
“Mr Slinger’s entire improper motivation was to cause as much hardship and pain for Mrs Perhar under threats of bankruptcy.”
A full trial of Mrs Perhar’s claim is set to take place later this year, but the case reached court last week as she appealed against preliminary findings made by a judge last August.
The judge had ruled that she breached the terms of her loan agreement with Synergy. However Mrs Justice Green allowed Mrs Perhar’s appeal, overturning the findings of breach made by the lower judge. He said it would be decided at the full trial whether Synergy was entitled to appoint administrators.
The administration of The Sustainable Bathroom Company Ltd will be put on hold until after the full trial.