Former New Star manager claimed Duffield 'undermined' fund managers' confidence

'When I told him to stop bullying Roger to invest in over-valued properties he threatened to sack me. I intended to take him to court over this but I was persuaded by Richard Pease not to do this. This was the worst decision of my life. I could have saved a lot of people a lot of money if I had brought action through the courts against him at that time.

'I would also like to make a formal complaint against Gregor Logan. He also bullied Roger and his team in to investing in over-valued properties.

'I am sorry to have to write this letter to you but an increasing number of my colleagues have come to the reluctant decision that it is time for Duffield to be removed. It would be better if the board did this rather than leave it to me to take the matter to court.'

After his employers received the letter the judgement says Evershed was promptly summoned by the then New Star chief executive Howard Covington, who is said to have suspended Evershed from his duties, saying he was 'clearly emotionally unfit to manage money'.

Evershed was given 15 minutes to clear his desk and as he passed Duffield he is said to have warned Evershed to be 'very careful' as 'this might be very expensive for you'.   

New Star then wrote to Evershed stating that he no longer had the authority to make investment decisions because he had been seeing a psychiatrist (which Evershed denied) and would not be allowed back until a practitioner chosen by New Star had confirmed him well enough to make investment decisions. 

A key plank of Evershed's compliant is that when he launched the Selected Opportunities fund he had agreed with Duffield to limit the size of the fund to £50 million. He argues Duffield sought to re-open the fund after a run of strong performance and this ultimately undermined it.

Evershed used the sharp decline in performance on his fund as evidence of the impact of the bullying at New Star in his Court of Appeal hearing.  

He said: 'John Duffield recruited investment stars to his new fund management group. In the first two years, five of the six main retail funds were in the top quartile of their respective sectors.

'Four years later, however, because of the bullying and undermining which the fund managers suffered from John Duffield, five of the six main retail funds were at the bottom of their respective sectors.’