Court Case

Court Case

Simon Shaw, the England International Rugby player, is scheduled to appear at the Royal Courts of Justice as a witness in a case between two financial advisers and Zurich.

Other rugby stars (eg Rob Henderson, Phil Greening and Damian Hopley) are also mentioned. It is alleged that some were mis-sold thousands of pounds worth of endowment policies by Zurich. The allegations are being made by the executives Zurich had hired to sell policies to the rugby stars, but who claim they uncovered massive mis-selling instead.

In 1998 Zurich became the official sponsor of the Rugby Premiership, and Allied Dunbar approached Philip Matania and his partner Terence Pullen to sell its products to the rugby community.

Under the deal, Allied Dunbar lent Matania and Pullen £429K to help them build up the business. Nine months later Matania made an appointment to see Simon Shaw.

He had already signed up to an Allied Dunbar endowment policy and its Maximum Investment Plan through Allied Dunbar salesman Mike Skeele.

According to court documents, Matania thought Shaw had been wrongly advised to take out both policies. Matania and Pullen claim that others, eg Wasps players Henderson and Greening, had also been wrongly advised.

Zurich is suing Matania and Pullen for recovery of the loans plus interest, and Matania and Pullen are counter-suing, claiming Zurich sabotaged their business in revenge for them pointing out the mis-selling.