Kevin Woolgar, a former club designer, sourcing agent and commercial representative for Lynx Golf, has been ordered to repay the UK-based golf equipment company $4m after being found by the High Court to have benefitted from millions of pounds of deceitfully-obtained secret commissions.
As reported in GBN on July 28, Woolgar, from East Sussex, began working as a commercial representative for Lynx in 2011, and was entrusted by the brand to design bespoke golf clubs, source golf products from manufacturers in China, and negotiate prices. However, unbeknown to Lynx, Woolgar agreed prices with factories in China before inflating them in the invoices he subsequently provided to Lynx and pocketing the secret commissions he made over a 12-year period.
In an indictment released on July 22, the High Court in London found that this enabled Woolgar to benefit from hidden commissions ranging from 5-75% of the real factory price of the goods. In total, the Court determined that 25% of over $8m paid by Lynx Golf to Woolgar amounted to improper secret commissions and must be repaid to Lynx.
The High Court’s subsequent financial judgement, announced on August 6, made Woolgar liable for a net repayment to Lynx of almost $4 million once pre-judgement interest was taken into account, with these sums continuing to attract interest until the debt is satisfied.
A statement issued on behalf Lynx Golf’s co-owners Stephanie Zinser and Steve Elford, said: “The cost of Mr Woolgar’s deceit to our company has been significant both in financial and personal terms, and it is very gratifying that the High Court recognises both this, and the ongoing obligations that Mr Woolgar now has to rectify his fraud, as well as to provide us with the information we require, to see what has become of our money.
“Fraud against a company is not a nameless, faceless act. We are real people, working hard to create a successful business with happy and loyal customers, and Woolgar’s actions not only set us back on our journey, but made things an awful lot harder than they should have been to get where we already are. Mr Woolgar now needs to – finally – do the right thing and put right the huge wrongs he has committed against us.”
