Ex-Clarks boss Mike Shearwood denies racism and sexism claims

Shearwood is taking the footwear retailer to an employment tribunal, due to begin in Bristol this morning, amid claims that he was ousted because he tried to blow the whistle on questionable accounting practices and corporate governance.

Shearwood was forced to resign from the role last year after being accused of behaviour that breached Clarks’ code of ethics.

According to The Sunday Times, Clarks has accused Shearwood of a number of misdemeanours, including referring to people of colour as “violent”, calling an Asian woman a “thing”, describing a representative from one of Clarks’ wholesale customers as a “f*****g faggot” and asking a female member of staff intrusive questions about her sexuality.

Shearwood denies the claims, insisting that he either did not make the comments at all, or that they were taken out of context.

He also says he was not given a chance to respond to the allegations before being forced out of the business. A press statement announcing his departure was issued just hours after he was presented with the claims, Shearwood says.

At the employment tribunal, Shearwood is expected to claim that Clarks was close to insolvent when he took charge in September 2016, but that a refinancing deal was held up. Shearwood will claim that one of its lenders, Barclays, was spooked by Clarks’ policy of using debt to pay dividends, and by an investigation into whether Clarks had breached sanctions in Iran.

Shearwood is also set to tell the tribunal that then-chair Tom O’Neill wanted to hide Clarks’ financial position from its family shareholders and that board minutes and accounts were manipulated to disguise the company’s financial issues.

Fraud had also been uncovered in Clarks’ China and Malaysia operations, Shearwood will reveal.

Clarks has rejected the allegations and said Shearwood is “fabricating a frivolous and vexatious narrative surrounding his time at Clarks purely with the intent of eliciting a termination payment”.

The retailer added that the tribunal case was a “calculated attempt to damage the Clarks business and its reputation”.