By Amy Jones,Ben Haslam

Copyright mirror

Mark Craven’s relationship with his cousin Chris deteriorated from being as tight as siblings to becoming bitterly fractured following what he described as a ‘vendetta’ packed with suspicion and hostility. “He was best man at my wedding, he was my best mate. He was like a brother, and he did all this stupid s**t to me,” he revealed. The father never imagined that their connection, which had previously flourished both socially and professionally, would plummet to such depths of distrust that his vehicle would be fitted with surveillance devices, he would be monitored nationwide, and he would be shadowed by a private investigator who would photograph him during private moments with his spouse and youngsters. Mark had risen through the ranks at Forrest Fresh Food Ltd, a food and beverage firm, after starting as a driver in 2008 before moving into sales. In 2016, he secured shares before being named as a director of the multi-million pound enterprise that same year, reports Liverpool Echo . Hailing from Todmorden, Yorkshire, Mark relocated to the south-east, where he was based at a company office in Romford before moving to Birkdale, Southport, in 2020 with his wife, Maggie, and their children. He operated from the Rochdale headquarters of Forrest Fresh. However, as he became increasingly involved with his mate’s fitness business, VIP HQ, which he had backed in Essex, Mark and his spouse decided to launch a new gym venue in Birkdale village, and the friendship with Chris started to deteriorate. In February 2022, after a heated meeting, Chris Craven, who believed Mark wasn’t dedicating enough time to his work responsibilities according to legal documents, hired a private investigation firm named Trojan. He tasked them with having a former police officer shadow Mark around Southport. Court records reveal that Trojan tracked Mark’s movements from 25 February until at least 29 April, two months later. Moreover, the firm secretly installed a tracker on Mark’s car, with Chris asserting it was for insurance reasons. However, a judge dismissed this claim during their court battle, stating it was intended for covert surveillance. Ironically, the private investigator’s reports mostly showed Mark commuting from Southport to Rochdale for work and not being overly involved in the gym business, as he claimed. The tension between Mark and Chris escalated further in April 2022 when a confrontation led to Chris accusing Mark of not pulling his weight and failing to fulfil his role in the company, despite his private investigators providing no evidence to support his claims. Three days after the fraught meeting, Mark was signed off work for a month due to stress and never returned to the job he had dedicated 14 years to. Just days before his scheduled return to the firm, Mark and his wife Maggie were shocked to receive a letter detailing allegations against him, evidence of surveillance, and news of his suspension from work. The letter accused Mark of not acting in the best interests of Forrest Fresh Foods, charges he vehemently denies. Forrest Fresh claimed that once Mark started collaborating with the new business, his working hours became “erratic”, although no proof was provided to support this claim at the subsequent tribunal, where Mark alleged unfair dismissal. The judge also noted that Forrest Fresh had doubted the authenticity of the four-week ‘fit note’ Mark had submitted to justify his sick leave, suspecting it to be fraudulent – an assertion the tribunal judge rejected, even highlighting how rattled Mark had been by the spying and accusations. Forrest Fresh also alleged “manifestly excessive” spending on Mark’s company credit card and claimed that employees under his management were leaving the firm, but again, the tribunal found no evidence to substantiate these claims. In a conversation with Liverpool Echo, Mark expressed his disbelief: “He was best man at my wedding, he was my best mate. He was like a brother, and he did all this stupid s**t to me. “I said to my wife while I was off that something wasn’t right, and I still remember her face. She said to me, ‘I don’t know how to show you this, but we got something last week’ and I was just confused as to what she meant. “She showed me a load of documentation, there was a picture of me, me kissing my wife, some with my kids in the background. “There were photos of my car, photos of my work car, of me meeting people.” Among the things Trojan tracked was a 200-mile round trip Mark took, taking his father to Huddersfield to have a biopsy for his stomach cancer. The investigator followed him every mile of the journey. Mark continued: “I still to this day think it can only be some kind of vindictive jealousy as to why he has done this. I feel betrayed. I’ve had to have therapy. This was my career, I felt ripped off. I felt exposed. “It nearly destroyed me, and it nearly destroyed my marriage.” In June 2022, Mark was removed as a director of the company, although he was not told about this at the time, and Companies House was never updated. The company then stopped paying him during his absence through sickness. This is when Mark decided to pursue a claim for unlawful deductions from wages against the company. Mark lost that case but eventually won on appeal. He is waiting to hear what the tribunal’s resolution will be. Mark lodged an additional claim against Forrest Fresh Foods Ltd for unfair dismissal, arguing he felt compelled to quit his position in February 2023. Mark’s case proved successful, with the tribunal reaching a unanimous verdict that he had been constructively and unfairly dismissed. In its written ruling, the panel stated: “From the evidence we have been referred to, the claimant was not the architect of his downfall as alleged. The architect of the claimant’s downfall was Chris Craven.” However, he remains in the dark about what compensation the tribunal will recommend for his dismissal. Mark now runs a bar called Platform X and VIP HQ, a soft play centre in Birkdale, as he attempts to rebuild his life following the bitter three-year dispute and the collapse of his bond with the man who was once like a sibling to him. The Mirror has contacted Forrest Fresh Food Ltd for comment.