By Andrew Levy,Editor

Copyright dailymail

A couple who ran a notorious car parking firm criticised for ticketing people who pulled over to sneeze or drop people off have concluded a rancorous divorce case over ownership of the company.

Jonathan and Julie Lecaille founded National Parking Enforcement in 2012, operating at shopping centres, hotels, pubs, restaurants, hospitals and industrial estates.

But they separated in 2016 and divorced two years later, triggering a venomous battle over the running of the firm.

Managing director Jonathan, 59, accused his ex-wife of cancelling 9,000 parking charge notices, costing the company £270,000, and failing to follow up on 32,000 tickets pending legal action, costing another £400,000.

He also said she ‘belittled’ him in front of staff at the offices in Norwich, Norfolk, with foul-mouthed rants including one occasion when she handed out emails to employees explaining he was a ‘narcissist’.

‘She essentially belittled and insulted me in front of around 15 members of staff,’ he told a hearing the Insolvency and Companies Court in London.

Ms Lecaille, 54, who was in charge of compliance, debt recovery and litigation, as well as data protection, denied the allegations and issued a counter claim stating her former husband’s conduct had forced her to resign as a director and look to sell her shares.

Her claims included that he excluded her from company business, denied her access to emails, system and documents and acted in a bullying and degrading way towards her.

She also said he made unauthorised withdrawals of funds from the company, including leasing a £50,000 car.

Both sought a court order at the Insolvency and Companies Court, accusing each other of unfairly prejudicial behaviour in the running of the company, and asking for a value to be set at which Mr Lecaille would buy his ex’s shares.

Judge Burton has now granted the petition, saying Ms Lecaille’s ‘extreme personal behaviour’, which included withdrawing £35,000 from the firm’s bank account – although it was paid back the next day – unfairly prejudiced Mr Lecaille’s interests in the business.

Ms Lecaille freely admitted sending emails via the company system to her ex in which she called him ‘sick’, ‘evil’ and ‘mentally disabled’.

She was also ‘unashamedly candid’ in agreeing that she would call him a ‘little bitch’ to his face.

The judge said: ‘In my judgment, it was Ms Lecaille’s extreme personal behaviour towards Mr Lecaille in the context of their working relationship that caused a breakdown in the trust and confidence necessary to enable the proper management of the company.

‘Ms Lecaille repeatedly allowed her disdain for Mr Lecaille’s alleged behaviour in their personal life to infect and dictate her conduct when they were both in the office, in her correspondence with him in work emails and generally in respect of the company’s affairs.

‘In my judgment, Ms Lecaille’s extraordinary and markedly unprofessional conduct justified Mr Lecaille’s petition.’

The court heard that no provision had been made for the couple’s ‘equal interests’ in the company after their divorce.

Instead, its running relied on the statutory framework and the couple’s understanding of their respective roles, which the judge described as a ‘quasi-partnership’.

Tensions over management escalated sharply in 2019, leading to the embarrassing claims about each other’s behaviour in court.

Ms Lecaille refused to accept an offer from a third party to buy the company, the court heard, which Mr Lecaille claimed was intended to harm his financial interests.

Referring to an incident in April 2019 when Ms Lecaille entered the office ‘screaming and shouting’ at her ex-husband in front of staff and distributing material accusing him of being a narcissist, the judge said: ‘Her behaviour rendered their constructive continuation in the quasi-partnership unrealistic.’

Her allegations of being excluded from management were also not substantiated, with Judge Burton noting Mr Lecaille had written to her after the outburst seeking her active involvement and pointing to his repeated invitations for her to take responsibility for debt recovery and litigation.

Motorists caught out by the firm include a pensioner handed a £170 fine last year for pulling into the car park for just over a minute.

The 81-year-old found there were no free spaces and wound down his window down to ask a passer-by to post a letter for him before leaving.

In 2021, a man was fined £60 by the company for taking 16 seconds to drop his NHS worker partner off on a road near the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. He later lost an appeal over the charge.

Another man received a £100 parking fine after stopping on the same road for 26 seconds to sneeze.

The buy-out value of the company’s shares is yet to be determined.