02.04.2008

Ex Liebherr director hit for a million

Peter Walker an ex finance director of Liebherr Sunderland Ltd, a division of Liebherr Nenzing, the marine crane manufacturer has been ordered to pay Liebherr Sunderland £653,426, plus interest of £122,219.52.

He was also ordered to pay Liebherr Nenzing £168,731.30 with interest costs of £73,716.22. The order was the result of a civil action to recover assets, no criminal case has been filed in the UK.

Walker was listed as the first defendant a second defendant was unnamed, while Harald Muehlhauser a Nenzing director and former Sunderland service manager was named as the third party and Gary Cockburn an accounts clerk in Sunderland listed as the fourth defendant.

All four men involved in the civil suit were fired by Liebherr in April 2007.

Walker will be partially refunded by Muehlhauser who was ordered to pay him £289,289.76 plus interest of £82,489.22 plus Walkers legal costs. And Cockburn who was ordered to pay Walker £118,881.91 plus £20,727.97 interest.

Muehlhauser was a popular and highly successful employee within Liebherr’s marine crane and offshore business and is still remembered fondly by many within the industry. He was arrested in Austria last year and held for a couple of months before eventually being released on bail.

The Austrian criminal prosecution has yet to go to court and could see him sentenced to a stiff jail term.

The fraud was picked up by an internal audit, triggering an investigation that led to the four men’s dismissal.

Vertikal.Net reported on the case but declined to name those concerned on the basis that they may have been found innocent. Their identities have now been made public in the local press.

See Crane Man arrested
See Crane man bailed