Marketing company obtains injunction for alleged staff harassment

A UK-based marketing and business consultancy has obtained temporary High Court injunctions against an Ireland-based company and its CEO to end what it claims to be a campaign of harassment and alleged intimidation against its staff.

The interim injunctions were issued in favor of Spear Marketing Limited against Tallaght-based “The Phone Shack Limited”, which provides training and technology solutions, and its CEO Thomas Dalton.

The order prevents defendants from contacting, harassing, intimidating or communicating directly with Spear employees and consultants.

The court also prohibited the defendants from debiting or using Spear’s bank details to create a debit in their favor.

Represented by Thomas Hogan SC, Spear claims that, through a Dublin-based independent marketing consultant, he was hired by Mr Dalton to create a website for Phone Shack, aimed at helping older people with the technology at the end of 2020. However, a dispute arose between the parties.

In an affidavit to the court, Spear manager Lauren Brown said Mr Dalton claimed he was provided with a substandard website, kept his data and demanded a ransom to return it.

She said Mr Dalton is looking for full control of the website and a full refund.

She added that Mr Dalton is also claiming that Spear is operating a suspected scam and suspected fraud. Mr Brown said all of Mr Dalton’s claims were dismissed and he had a fully functional website.

She said that following the dispute, Phone Shack and Mr Dalton allegedly carried out a campaign of intimidation, threats and harassment that upset Spear employees and independent consultants.

She said within a short period of time he had sent hundreds of messages, texts and emails, many of which she said were allegedly malicious in nature.

She said he told her in messages that Spear “had upset very important people” that he was “a member of Ireland’s main political party” that she “didn’t know what she was getting into. embedded “and” you have no idea who you are dealing with “.

Reputation

Mr Dalton also claims to have filed complaints against Spear with the police, she said. She said she asked the defendants to stop contacting her and correspond with Spear’s attorneys.

Ms Brown said Spear feared the defendants’ actions would significantly damage his reputation.

She also said that in recent days Mr Dalton had sent messages claiming that Spear owed Phone Shack € 10,000 for withholding his information, and that continued retention of that data would incur charges of € 2,000 per day.

If the information were destroyed, his message added, Spear would be billed an additional € 100,000.

She said it was also discovered that Phone Shack had set up a direct debit from the Spears / Revolut company’s bank account, and that € 3,100 was to be deducted from that account.

She clarified that no payment was authorized by Spear, and despite complaints filed with Garda, she does not know how the debit was set up.

The case went to Judge Tony O’Connor on Friday afternoon.

The judge, on an ex parte basis, said he was satisfied to grant the temporary injunctions against the defendants. However, he added that the court should hear the defendants as soon as possible and adjourned the case.

He will return to court early next week.