Supply teacher recruitment firm ASA Education has won a six-figure payout after it sued four of its former employees for ignoring an injunction that prevented them setting up a rival agency.

A four-month court battle saw Ethan Wootton, Caroline Rix, Matthew Hill and Michele Waller served with the injunction along with another agency, Career Legal.

The four employees walked out of ASA Education in June this year and started their own rival agency, Career Teachers, which was under the ownership of Career Legal.

ASA Education, which is part of Hot Group, then sued them for breach of contractual gardening leave obligations. The court then served an injunction, preventing the group operating in competition to their former employer.

When ASA Education claimed to have found evidence indicating Career Teachers was still operating despite the injunction, it sued for contempt of court.

The two parties settled out of court just before a hearing at the High Court on 4 October and Career Teachers paid six-figure damages, plus a further undisclosed sum for costs.

Geoffrey Perkins, director of education at Hot Group, said: “This demonstrates courts are supporting recruitment companies who are vulnerable to people walking out and taking important information.”

Denis Simpson, a director of Career Legal, told Recruiter: “[The competition clause] was a grey area that we were prepared to defend and they were prepared to attack. This is in the past and we are now moving on.”