The action was taken by Andrew Noonan, who used to be the Club Secretary, and a founding member of the Trust Fund that originally saved the Club in 1997. The amount in question was £267,943.
Prior to Noonan leaving his Dean Court position, his firm (A F Noonan) was owed £114,750, which had been reduced to £82,000 on his departure. Soon afterwards, the Club was presented with further invoices for £120,000 for alledged work over the previous 2 years. A record of which didn't exist in the form of Board minutes, quotes, or contract.
With this in mind, the High Court dismissed the additional claim against the Club, ordering AFC Bournemouth to pay the outstanding £82,000, plus interest, plus VAT.
With all of this going on in the background has hampered Sean O'Driscoll's ability to fully prepare the squad for the new season. No players could realistically be signed if the closure of the club was imminent. The Club has now pledged to sign players in time for the new season.
Speaking in the Bournemouth Evening Echo, Peter Phillips is quoted as saying: "I am delighted with the outcome. My only regret is that it had to go to court. We have been trying for months to do a deal with Andy". He went to say: "The last few weeks have been very difficult under the court order and it has put Sean in an impossible position. How can he go and find new players and not be able to make them offers? We had a hard enough time just doing the contract renewals and always run on a very tight ship so for this to happen was a nightmare. There was the chance we could have gone under so you can't just go around signing people. We had to be very careful. Now this decision has been made we can get back to some sort of normal business".
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