Then the a lawyer responds, or could that also be the guy the cleans out the toilets at the local gay bar...
Username: Lawyergal
Posted 12-05-00 16:36 and read 1417 times.
I'm not involved in the Caledonian Wings project, but I am a keen aviator and also a commercial solicitor (lawyer) with a past involvement in libel cases.
I have reviewed the two articles, and it is very clear that there is no real story there other than that which the journalist is attempting to create. He refers to Mr Robertson as a 'conman' yet has neglected to detail who - and how - the alleged confidence trick is being perpetrated. This is a prior requisite for something to be labelled a 'con'.
Nor do I see anything in the least bit sinister about Delta not wishing to disclose who they are in negotiations with; nor is there anything suspicious in Mr Robertson's stated intention of purchasing an existing AOC. In any case, employees of the UK Civil Aviation Authority are bound by the Official Secrets Act and anyone disclosing who is - or is not - applying for certification is liable to prosecution under the Act.
The journalist admitted in his article that his headline in the latest article is without merit and was therefore effectively malicious as he had a quote from the police spokesman confirming that there was no evidence connecting Mr Robertson with the allegations.
It is highly significant that the woman named as being Mr Robertson's former fiance is not quoted - and indeed declined to comment - so there is no direct evidence of any of the allegations concerning her; merely hearsay; and that provided from unnamed 'friends' who are on the balance of probability likely to be the instigator(s) of the story.
In summary, there is within the stories, no substantiation or even independent corroboration whatsoever of any of the claims made by their author.
The paper that published these two stories is a tabloid with a long court history, having been sued more than 50 times this year alone.
I have looked at the profiles of the most prolific posters on this subject. Leaving aside Mr Robertson, who is understandably conerned at protecting his reputation and that of his start-up company, the most frequent posters are split into two categories:
a) students with no apparent commercial or airline experience (such as the instigator of this thread, MX5_boy, CPDC10-30 and eg777er) who seem to think that they could do this bigger, better, and faster than Mr Robertson - and question his credibility because he isn't doing it bigger, better, and faster; and
b) F_boot and Brissie_Lions, both of whom have consistently been attacking Mr Robertson yet have not been able to provide any independent corroboration of their allegations. I would even go so far as to agree with Lowfareair that it is indeed a definite possibility that F_boot and Brissie_Lions may well be one and the same person. From a legal point of view, both of these posters have gone over the boundary into libel on numerous occasion and Mr Robertson would therefore have legal recourse against them.
Interestingly, I note that the name of Mr Mike Snow has been mooted on another forum (www.pprune.org) as being F_boot. It is most interesting that Brissie_lions has leapt to his defence over the subject of the SAS23 username - I have checked the usernames on here, incidentally, together with all of the postings by SAS23 and nowhere can I find any indication at all that he is 'passing off' himself as Mr Snow.
Also of great interest is the email that purports to have been sent by (presumably) the author of the Sunday Mail articles to F_boot under the name of "Freeboot". Certainly, on checking F_boot's profile, I see that his given email address is the same as that on the alleged Sunday Mail email. It is a clear indication that this journalist has been following F_boot's postings and has realised that they have been unsubstantiated (and therefore under law are deemed to be malicious) yet has wanted F_boot to supply him with his "story". It appears from the tenor of his message, that he wishes to do damage to the Caledonian Wings project simply because it has received much acclaim in the local press.