February 14th 1996

After a quick breakfast we rushed off to work at two separate recruitment agencies in one tiny town in Devon, England.

We had met through our jobs - and got married within six weeks - but that's a whole other story for another time.

What you need to know is that, purely because we were married and their top billers, the owners of both agencies had convinced themselves we were plotting to set up a rival firm and steal their clients.

So they hatched a plan to stop us before we started and fired us as soon as we came into work.

We both asked why and they both said "you know why."

But we didn't.

We came home, still in shock, and went for a walk across the adjoining fields to our house to clear our heads. 

We lived next to a river and it was great to watch the ducks play and the rabbits chase each other to take our minds off what just happened.

And then we saw him.

A lone suited figure walking towards us across the grass.

We looked at each other, both thinking what on earth is happening now?

Two minutes later, we'd been served legal papers.

Pages and pages of restraints.

 Not only stopping us from setting up our own company, but also not working for any recruitment agency in the next 12 months in a 50 mile radius.

They'd gone all the way to court. Over a hunch.

And then the calls started.

Clients and candidates asking what was happening.

 The companies had joined together and sent a mass email plus letters out to everyone we had ever dealt with saying we were "both terminated pending court action".

They urged them not have any dealings with us and, if they did,  they were jointly not responsible for the consequences.

They didn't say we had done anything criminal but they certainly implied it.

Our world was shattered.

We mostly stayed at home through shame because even trips to the supermarket were awkward with people staring at us.

We concentrated on being ready to defend ourselves in court.

But then they dropped out.

Just hours before the case was to be heard, they dropped the action.

They had no evidence - just paranoia.

We had no chance to clear our name.

Our solicitor said they knew they wouldn't win.

That they never intended to go all the way.

It was all tactical.

Did they then follow up with another mass email saying they had dropped proceedings to the people and companies we had worked with?

Of course not.

They wanted to blacken our name.

Job done.

Now you maybe thinking...

There's no smoke without fire. We must have been considering this, right?

Wrong!

We were in total shock. It was the furthest thing from our minds.

We were newly married, happy in our own little bubble of comfort, and earning decent money from our commissions because we were good at our jobs. 

In fact, we loved our jobs.

and worked with some great people along the way...