Leeds United chairman Ken Bates ordered to pay £50,000 over ‘persecuted’ former director

Leeds United chairman Ken Bates has been ordered to pay £50,000 libel damages by the High Court to a former director of the club Melvyn Levi who said he was “persecuted”.

A judge in London ruled in favour of businessman Mr Levi, 65, who brought the action over comments made about him by Mr Bates.

Sir Charles Gray said the libel action arose out of events surrounding the acquisition of Leeds United Football Club by a consortium headed by Mr Bates in 2005.

Mr Levi sued over three articles written by Mr Bates in the Leeds United programme in 2006 and 2007 and a letter written to club members in August 2007.

His claim was that they contained “grave and offensive” libels which “seriously injured” his reputation.

Mr Bates, 78, denied libel, but the judge ruled that he had failed in his defences of justification and fair comment.

Mr Levi, who lives in Leeds, said he was accused of being a “shyster” who had tried to blackmail the club over money.

Mr Bates, who lives in Monaco and was not present for the judgment, faces a costs bill believed to be around £1.5 million.

Sir Charles refused him permission to appeal, but he can still apply directly to the Court of Appeal to take the case further.

The judge said the £50,000 damages he was awarded was in respect of the three match programmes “where the defences failed”.

Mr Levi’s claim in relation to the letter failed as Sir Charles ruled that this was covered by qualified privilege.

The judge listed a number of factors he had taken into account when calculating the appropriate level of damages, including the “gravity of the libels”.

He said the “allegation of blackmail is particularly serious”.

from: telegraph.co.uk