Rebekah Vardy has hit out at ''murky'' dealings in a fresh Wagatha Christie battle with Coleen Rooney over £300,000 of costs from their High Court case. Vardy sued Rooney for libel over an Instagram post accusing her of leaking stories to the tabloid press, but was left facing a £1.8 million bill after spectacularly losing the case. In a now-famous post on social media, Rooney revealed in 2019 that she had turned super sleuth to work out which of her friends was passing private information to journalists.
She posted on Instagram a series of fake stories, whittled down the people who could see them, and ultimately revealed the culprit, telling the world: “It’s ……….Rebekah Vardy’s account.”. Vardy sued, but her gamble backfired as a judge concluded Rooney’s accusation was “substantially true” and also slammed Vardy and her agent for the loss and destruction of key evidence in the case.
At the High Court on Tuesday, a lawyer for Vardy launched a bid for Rooney to hand over letters between her and her lawyers as well as evidence about VAT on her legal costs, which Vardy is being asked to pay. “The Bill contains total VAT of £302,300.39“, set out Vardy’s barrister Jamie Carpenter. “The situation is murky, to say the least, and further disclosure and information is plainly required before the claimant (Vardy) or court can be satisfied that the VAT is properly claimed.“.
He stressed to the court that no allegations of illegal activity or professional misconduct after being levelled against Rooney or her team, but urged Costs Judge Mark Whalan to order the release of documents relating to the VAT bill, saying there is “quite a large question mark“ over it. Robin Dunne, for Rooney, accused Vardy of a “fishing expedition“, and told the court: “The application is wholly misconceived and appears to completely ignore the well-established rules relating to evidence and disclosure of privileged materials in detailed assessments.“.
The court heard that a judge at an earlier hearing had been handed the wrong letter setting out arrangements for Rooney’s legal costs. Paul Lunt, a partner at law firm Brabners, has apologised for the mix-up, setting out that the letter shown to the judge was for a deal struck between his company and CWR 2021 Ltd, a firm in which Rooney and her husband Wayne are directors. He said the retainer had nothing to do with the court battle itself, but instead “covered the ‘fallout’ from the claim, which generated worldwide headlines and intense media interest.
“That work included media work which led to the documentary on the claim for Disney+, as well as a book release.“. Mr Lunt has also sought to explain a mistake over VAT on Rooney’s legal bills, saying her agent had wrongly tried to claim the tax back from HMRC. The lawyer says Rooney herself is not VAT registered, and that amount is “correctly“ claimed from Vardy. Rooney’s agent, Triple S, paid legal bills on her behalf and then submitted an application to reclaim VAT.
“Mr Lunt had made it clear that this was not permissible and as a result Triple S had taken steps to regularise the position and repay any sums erroneously received from HMRC“, set out Mr Dunne. The judge has said he will reserved his judgment on the latest Wagatha Christie skirmish to a later date. In his written submissions, Mr Carpenter indicated that the battle over costs that Vardy has to pay may not have to go to a full hearing over seen by a judge.
“The amount of VAT which is in issue is a clear obstacle to settlement and the avoidance of a further hearing“, he said. The Wagatha Christie trial captivated audiences around the world, as both Rooney and Vardy gave evidence in the High Court over tabloid stories and WAG relationships. Vardy likened Rooney to a “school bully” with her social media accusation which shattered their friendship, and broke down in tears as she described the torrent of online abuse she had faced at a time when she was heavily pregnant.
But Vardy also had to face questions about whether she had leaked information to the media about her husband’s teammates Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez, as well as texts with her agent Caroline Watt branding Rooney an “attention seeker” and “desperate”. Vardy claimed she was “absolutely just joking” when she told her agent to leak a story about a married TV star’s affair, but accepted she had tried to pass information on Drinkwater’s drink drive arrest to a journalist, telling Ms Watt: “I want paying for this”.
She was also accused of staging paparazzi photos without asking for permission from other England team WAGs. When Rooney complained about a car crash story ending up in the news, Ms Watt messaged Vardy to say the source of the leak “wasn’t someone she trusted. It was me”. In the final judgment of Mrs Justice Steyn, Vardy also came in for heavy criticism over the absence of masses of computer and phone data, which she said had been corrupted or lost, and Ms Watt claimed to have dropped her phone off the side of a boat and into the North Sea.
