A YORK businessman is looking positively to the future after he was vindicated in "a nightmare" county court battle.

David Lawrie, who runs a sandwich shop and a delicatessen in the city, spent more than two years in a legal battle to claim about £17,000 in rent and stock arrears from Newcastle-based hotelier Penelope Stansfield, who bought his Bridge Street business in 1999.

Mr Lawrie was forced to pay the sum to the landlord after Mrs Stansfield gave up the business two months after taking it on.

But Mrs Stansfield in turn brought a counter-claim for £100,000, alleging that Mr Lawrie did not make clear that the shop's turnover was tumbling before she bought the shop.

In his judgment at Newcastle County Court, Recorder Julian Hallam dismissed the counter- claim after finding no evidence of wrongdoing, and said that Mr Lawrie was a credible witness.

He ordered that Mrs Stansfield, whom he said lacked credibility as a witness, pay the £16,995.34 debt along with all court costs - including £20,000 which had to be paid within 28 days of the judgment on September 24.

Mr Lawrie, who at one time owned five businesses in the city and employed 60 people, decided to sell up so he could move back to Scotland to be nearer his three children.

He sold Lawries On The Bridge to Mrs Stansfield for £60,000 in 1999, after providing her with key figures for the business.

According to Recorder Hallam's judgment, Mrs Stansfield operated the business for just nine weeks and a day, during which time she changed the decor and the menu, and approached agents with a view to selling on within three weeks of taking over the business, indicating falsely that the sale was due to ill-health.

She closed the business completely on August 27, 1999, after failing to respond to Mr Lawrie's offer to repurchase the business the day before.

The Recorder also recognised when making his decision that Mrs Stansfield made no claim as to misrepresentation until at least nine months later, in April 2000.

He said: "The defendant had every opportunity to request any figures she required together with advice on those figures from an accountant and I cannot find that the claimant was negligent and that he made misrepresentation as a result of the defendant's omissions."

He went on to say: "The defendant gave false information that the reason for sale was due to ill- health. I have to say that the defendant's conduct in this respect indicates a lack of credibility as a witness."

Mr Lawrie, who reopened the Bridge Street business as Eats And Treats, and still runs a delicatessen in Newgate, said the whole battle had left him older and wiser.

He now commutes to Scotland at weekends to be close to his children. He said: "The whole thing was distracting - a nightmare.

"Now I'm enjoying the relief, the fun of running my own business and being able to concentrate 100 per cent on that - I enjoy what I do."

Mrs Stansfield refused to comment.

Updated: 11:00 Friday, November 02, 2001