The former chief executive of Triad Group, a small IT consultancy with clients ranging from Tesco to the Department for Transport, has won an undisclosed settlement from the company after she was sacked for raising what the board admits were reasonable concerns.
Mira Makar, a ballerina turned accountant, was suspended with immediate effect by John Rigg, Triad's executive chairman, in February last year after he interrupted a meeting she was having with Evolution Securities, the firm's brokers, at which she had been detailing her concerns. She was sacked in December.
Lawyers for Ms Makar had been due to begin presenting her case before an employment tribunal yesterday, but a private settlement was agreed just hours before the hearing was scheduled to start.
Ms Makar and Mr Rigg - who had been involved in a personal relationship with each other that ended some years ago - each hold 29.7% stakes in Triad. Shares in the company fell 3p yesterday to 23.5p, leaving the loss-making company with a market value of only £3.6m. It is also saddled with a considerable legal bill.
In a statement to the stock exchange, the company said: "The directors accept that Ms Makar had a reasonable basis for concerns on a number of financial issues ... The directors also accept that Ms Makar acted properly in drawing attention to these matters."
Triad declined further comment other than to say: "Events leading to her dismissal were unfortunate and the directors regret the distress Ms Makar has suffered."
Ms Makar's concerns are believed to have focused on invoicing issues at Generic Software Consultants, a recruitment subsidiary in Milton Keynes. She had hired accountants from Egan Roberts and the private investigations firm Stork to look into the matter. Ms Makar claimed she went to Evolution only after Mr Rigg had failed to support her investigations.
In July last year Mr Rigg issued a statement telling investors that PricewaterhouseCoopers intended to comment in the full audited accounts on what it believed were "accounting control issues" that violated the Companies Act 1985 but the full report and accounts were unqualified. Nevertheless, the audit firm resigned in June this year.
In its report and accounts, Triad blamed credit control issues on a number of exceptional circumstances including an unprecedented workload, the loss of two experienced staff and a new invoice-processing system. It said all information was recorded correctly and a "slippage in cash collection" was recovered in full.
The company received a letter from the Financial Services Authority last year but is confident that it is no longer the subject of the regulator's attentions.