Rebel retracts Portman allegations

13 April 2012

PORTMAN Building Society turned its legal guns on dissident Tim Tanner, who inflamed last year's annual general meeting with questions about chief executive Robert Sharpe and his relationship with a female colleague.

Tanner, of Camberley, Surrey, published further allegations on his website in October. Now the website lists a full apology. He agreed to pay 'a five figure sum' (£10,000) toward Portman's costs.

He admitted 'serious factual errors' and confirmed that: 'There is no truth in my allegations (1) that Mr Sharpe or his co-directors behaved improperly in connection with Sharpe's non-executive directorship of Marketing Matters Ltd (2) concerning Mr Sharpe's personal relationship with Ms Cheryl Binnis.'

Tanner withdrew allegations that the board had shown bad faith in turning down his resolutions. He previously sought election to Portman's board.

A friend said: 'This has been a withering experience for Tim. He has lost a stone in weight and been unable to eat or sleep.'

Portman said: 'We have no objection to him standing for the board. We do object to defamatory statements. The directors felt compelled to act.'

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT