The Recruitment and Investment Group (RIG) has successfully sued an energy company for forcing six of its contractors to sign up with a rival agency.

RIG Energy, which supplies contractors to fit gas appliances, sued Staveley Industries for £44,000 in court after the two parties failed to agree through mediation.

Central London County Court heard Staveley, trading as Integral, urged a group of six contractors supplied by RIG to switch to a rival agency, Orion Electrotech.

One of the contractors had an argument with his boss over parking arrangements, which led to them being encouraged to leave RIG Energy, the court heard.

The court saw internal emails which detailed how Ray Johnston, Staveley’s regional director, asked his subordinate to make sure that any engineer transferring from RIG to Orion had no incriminating paperwork. John Saint Mart, one of the contractors, testified that Staveley had told him he could only continue doing maintenance work for the London Borough of Haringey if he worked through Orion.

Peter Flaherty, a director of RIG Energy, said: “From the outset, we tried to persuade Staveley Industries that we did not want to fall out with them. But we would not allow the contractors that we had introduced to be transferred to another agency unless they paid us the fees that we were contractually entitled to.”

Neither Orion nor Staveley wished to comment on the case.