Elizabeth Philp, 40, whose husband has called for "zero tolerance" to all crime, is accused of data handling offences and unlawfully using "confidential information" from her former employer to set up a rival business.
She denies the allegations and is countersuing her former employer, which she accuses of cyber-attacking the website of the company she subsequently founded.
The legal tussle centres on the departure of Philp from the London Specialist Pharmacy Group (LSPG), where she was chief executive until 2017, and the founding of her own company, Roseway Labs. Her former employer has accused her of having stored and retained "trade secrets" on a Dell XPS laptop computer that was not wiped before she left the company.
It is further claimed that, with three other former LSPG employees, Philp conspired to poach her former employer's client lists for their new firm, leading to losses amounting to about £1.5m.
In Philp's defence and counterclaim, she denies the allegations and says a delay in carrying out a factory reset of her laptop was the result of being "fully involved in supporting her husband's campaign as part of the 8 June 2017 general election".
This story is from the June 20, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 20, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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