Peppa Pig toy boss may lose his home over 'pen threat'

A PEPPA Pig toy firm executive who threatened his boss with a pen could lose his £850,000 home after being hit with a £288,000 bill for a five-year legal fight.

- By Richard Gittins

The Character Group, which makes Peppa Pig, Pokemon and Doctor Who toys in the UK, sacked Mark Dowding in 2017, saying it had lost confidence in its £160,000-a-year chief financial officer and company secretary.

Mr Dowding went to an employment tribunal, claiming he was forced out and the pen threat was fabricated.

But he lost in 2020, when employment judge Omar Khalil ruled the incident, in which Mr Dowding’s boss accused him of “brandishing a pen in a threatening manner” at a meeting, causing him to recoil, did occur.