He added: “The case concerns serious allegations of dishonesty made against people in business.”Īt the hearing the Davidoffs’ barrister laid emphasis on the family being, in the judge’s words, “active members of the Jewish community in and around the Edgeware and Hendon areas of North London”.īoth Mr Doshi and Mr Govan used Jewish names for some of their critical reviews. “No doubt the question of serious harm will be controversial at the trial,” said the judge. The judge also dismissed arguments that the allegations were out of time as more than a year had passed since initial publication and that there was no evidence that they were in fact damaging.

Mr Govan denied, through solicitors, that he was the author of the reviews: “Mr Govan now accepts that the denial was a lie,” the judge noted. The two were unmasked after a “Norwich Pharmacal application” revealed the IP addresses used for the reviews: this process has been deployed frequently to identify anonymous postings online. The Davidoffs claim that the two ex-employees were acting in concert, although this is denied. LKP is informed that they may already be looking at costs against them of £36,000, with more to come if the libel action comes to court and they are again unsuccessful (see costs order application below).ĭhir Doshi and Thomas Govan, formerly in paid employment with ABC Estates, had applied to the high court for the libel case to be thrown out.īut deputy master of the rolls Basil Yoxall has ruled that it can go ahead.ĪBC Estates and the Davidoff family – Richard, Hanni, Tamara and Debby – claim that the critical reviews’ meaning is that they “are fraudsters and dishonest because they run a fraudulent and dishonest enterprise (or enterprises) which inflate prices artificially, charge for services not rendered and pursuant to falsified invoices and publish or cause to be published fake reviews of their services in order to deceive prospective clients into obtaining their services, and in so doing have committed criminal offences”.

Two ex-employees of controversial managing agent Richard Davidoff who posted critical Google reviews with fake names of the services of ABC Estates have failed to block efforts to sue them for defamation.

Competition and Markets Authority / OFT.

Staff review of william hill in govan