Wealth management firm accused of forging signature

A wealth management firm owned by the founder of Phones4u has been accused of forging the signature of his one-time protégée. John Caudwell, the backer of Signia Wealth, is locked in a High Court fight with Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe over the circumstances of her exit from the company last year. Ms Dauriac-Stoebe accuses Signia of unfairly dismissing her as chief executive after she reported a £1.7m “sham transaction” allegedly structured to help Caudwell avoid paying VAT. Signia claims that Ms Dauriac-Stoebe instructed her PA to falsify £33,000 of expenses. A letter from her lawyers at Rosenblatt, sent to Signia’s advisers at Mishcon de Reya, said the handwriting and signature on a 2011 undertaking to comply with share trading restrictions “does not, in fact, belong to her”. Rosenblatt said the documents “will have to be subjected to handwriting analysis by an expert” should Mr Caudwell’s side choose to deploy them in court.