Kibble charity faces £400k legal fees payout over defamation case

A Renfrewshire charity is to pay up to £400,000 in legal fees after a defamation case raised by employees was dismissed.

- EDEL KENEALY

Kibble Education and Care Centre will hand over a minimum of £200,000 to Alan Wardrop after a court ruled 80 percent of his legal fees should be paid by his pursuers.

The defamation case was brought by Kibble chief executive Jim Gillespie and director of corporate services Mark Macmillan over allegations the pair had acted dishonestly.

Yesterday, the charity - which had already committed to covering the legal costs of its employees - said it would also pay the fees libelled at the two men despite not being named a claimant in the case.

The Scottish charities regulator OSCR is, meanwhile, continuing its probe into Kibble’s actions now the facts have been established in court.

A hearing to determine fees and expenses was held on Thursday - two months after Judge Clark issued a written judgement.

The case centred on an allegation that Mr Gillespie and Mr Macmillan were using Kibble’s position as a shareholder in St Mirren FC to push through secret plans to build a wellbeing centre on land owned by the football club.

Mr Gillespie is the club’s vice-chairman while Mr Macmillan stood down from the Buddies board last month.

In July, Judge Clark ruled the Kibble bosses had no “secret plan” to build on the land and, further, they had not lied to “cover up” their actions.