A COMPANY boss went out of business after landing a huge bill for breaching copyrights belonging to a firm he once owned.

Jon Redrup put Redrup Publications into voluntary liquidation after a judge ordered his company to pay over £55,000 with the threat of an even bigger payout looming.

The judge ruled in the High Court that Mr Redrup reproduced large chunks of training manuals for care home staff from publications produced by Norton Fitzwarren-based Redcrier Publications, which he owned before selling it to Alec Seville.

Mr Recorder Alastair Wilson QC ordered Redrup Publications to make interim payments totalling £37,450 to Mr Seville and Redcrier for breaching the copyright with £18,029.25 towards their costs.

Mr Redrup would have faced a bigger bill at a future court hearing, but no money will be paid after he put Redrup Publications into liquidation last month following the case.

In his judgment, the Recorder said Mr Redrup founded Redcrier Publications, selling it to Mr Seville in 2007, though he continued working there until 2011 when he resigned to set up Redrup Publications, trading as Complete Care Training in competition.

The Recorder said CCT “copied the Redcrier manuals and updated them in some or all cases”.

CCT initially disputed breaching copyright laws, claiming Redcrier’s material was not original, but later backed down.

Mr Seville told the County Gazette the extent of copying was “breathtaking”.

He said: “They copied almost all of most of our Silver Box training manuals.

“We’ve had to spend a lot of money on legal proceedings to get to this point, but our resolve has never been in question.

“CCT misappropriated the copyrights on our Silver Box training manuals, which have been developed over many years.

“We were never going to take this lying down.”

Mr Redrup said he and his wife believed they were entitled to use the material without infringing copyright, claiming she wrote most of the material when working for Redrup Publications.

He said: “It has been two years of hard work fighting this.

“We don’t believe we’re the bad people we’ve been made out to be.

“We don’t wish Alec Saville any ill feeling – we just want to leave him to get on with his business and to get on with ours.

“Because of the size of the award we put Redrup Publications into voluntary liquidation.”