A private jet company is suing a former employee who it accuses of using confidential information to poach its VIP clients.
Edinburgh-based Jet Logic has taken legal action against Vickie Clark after discovering contact details for its wealthy clients had been downloaded from the firm’s database.
Miss Clark, 39, worked for the business, which charters luxury jet and helicopter flights, for nine years and rose to the position of client services manager.
However, she resigned in January last year and has since started working for a rival firm set up by her family.
Jet Logic have claimed that Miss Clark, of Dalkeith, Midlothian, breached her contract by accessing more than 465 files from its records while working her notice period including their entire client database.
The data involved concerns a number of “high net worth” individuals and has been described as being of “significant value” to Jet Logic.
The company said Miss Clark “was not entitled to arm herself with client information and confidential material” to use in her new role with The Private Jet Boutique.
They secured an order at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for the recovery of documents which were then seized from Miss Clark’s home in a “dawn raid”.
They are now seeking an interdict at the Court of Session preventing their former employee from using any of the information in her current job.
Miss Clark has denied the allegations and claimed the information in her possession was email addresses which are in the public domain.
Submissions to the sheriff court by Jet Logic’s lawyers stated: “The defender’s contract of employment contained certain confidentiality obligations and a restrictive covenant.
“The names and contacts for the pursuer’s clients had been built up over a period of some 12 years. That data had significant value to the pursuer and consisted predominantly of a number of ‘high net worth’ individuals.
“Someone using the defender’s computer and login details created a spreadsheet with details of the pursuer’s entire client database on 25 January 2018.
“On the same day, the same person accessed a document entitled ‘Archived Quotes and Flights’ which held all of the pursuer’s data from incorporation to December 2017 when a new computer system was created.
“On 30 January 2018 the same person downloaded 465 files from the pursuer’s central database onto the defender’s one drive system which was a unique part of the pursuer’s server used by the defender.
“There was no legitimate business reason why the defender would have required access to this volume and nature of documentation.
“The pursuer believed that the documents were accessed so that they could be copied and retained for future use by the defender.”
They added: “The pursuer sought and obtained an order. A huge number of documents were recovered.
“An action of interdict has been raised. The contents of reports concerning the material recovered will be used as evidence.”
Miss Clark has denied taking any confidential information from Jet Logic.
Her legal team said a client list and other information recovered from her home “was obtained from public sources, apart from perhaps six or eight which the defender had remembered”.
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Sheriff Kenneth McGowan has awarded undisclosed expenses to Jet Logic in relation to their action for the recovery of documents.
The case at the Court of Session is set to be heard later this year.
On its website, Jet Logic says it charters private jets for top businessman, sports stars and “some of the world’s best-known bands and solo artists”.
Keith Campbell, managing director of Jet Logic, said: “I can confirm we have taken this legal action to protect our position. As the case is ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
Miss Clark declined to comment.
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