Around 20% of staff were allocated shares by former managing director Patrick Gee, who died before the scheme was completed and his successor, Timothy Ingram Hill, was accused of improperly acquiring the shares.
News reports vary in the amount Ingram Hill made from the shares when Roadchef was sold in 1998, the BBC suggest he made £27m, whilst The Independent report he made £29m.
In January 2014, the High Court ruled that whilst Ingram Hill had not acted illegally, he had breached his fiduciary duty to Roadchef’s employees.
The Roadchef Employee Benefits Trustees Ltd then sued, and after winning a court judgement last year both parties agreed to an out of court settlement, that according to The Independent, is believed to be between £20m and £30m, scoring all 600 employees affected a payout up to £50,000.
Roadchef, founded in 1973, runs 21 motorway service stations in England, Wales and Scotland and some of the brands the company offers include McDonald’s, Costa and WHSmith.