Ashley Cukier represented Innoverv Global Solutions Limited, a leading SAP and AI consultancy, in committal proceedings brought against the Defendant, a former employee of the firm ([2026] EWHC 1294 (Comm)).
The committal proceedings arose in light of the Defendant’s repeated breaches of an interim anti-suit injunction made by Mr Justice Foxton (as he then was) in December 2025 and a subsequent permanent anti-suit injunction made by Mr Justice Henshaw in January of this year.
Having determined it appropriate (by reference to the factors set out by the Court in Sanchez v Oboz [2016] 1 FLR 897) to proceed in the Defendant’s absence, Mr Justice Robin Knowles CBE held that the Defendant, in pursuing parallel proceedings in India, in breach of the anti-suit injunctions, had engaged in “a series of actions … to do exactly what he had been injuncted not to do”.
The Court was moreover satisfied that it should proceed directly to penalty, rather than adjourning the matter for the Defendant to make submissions.
In assessing an appropriate penalty, the Court pointed to “a clear case of repeated and continuing contempt, deliberate in the full sense of the word … [with] this type of repeated and deliberate non-compliance [which] strikes at the administration of justice”, sentencing the Defendant to a term of imprisonment of 12 months.
The ex tempore judgment of Mr Justice Robin Knowles CBE, recently published, can be found here.
Ashley was instructed by Stephen Ross at Withers LLP.
