Grocer claims Leighton owes it £600,000
Asda is threatening legal action in an attempt to recover£600,000 it claims to have mistakenly paid in tax on behalf of former chief executive Allan Leighton when he left the supermarket group in 2000.

It was reported that the retailer has embarked on High Court action against Leighton, saying it has 'exhausted every other option' to recover the money.

The Wal-Mart-owned retailer said: 'The only reason we're taking this to court is because the six-year time limit to take court action and make a claim against him was drawing to an end.

'We simply can't say goodbye to£600,000 - the thousands of colleagues working in our stores would expect nothing less.'

The dispute began when Leighton - now the Royal Mail and Bhs chairman - cashed in his shares in November 2000. Asda claims it failed to deduct the tax due on the options.

Leighton said in a statement last night: 'Having received the information we requested from Asda's lawyers in the past few days, the matter is being considered by my lawyers to see what scope there is to resolve this.'

Leighton joined Asda as group marketing director from Mars in 1992. In 1996, he was appointed chief executive and following Wal-Mart's takeover of Asda, he became the president and chief executive of Wal-Mart Europe in 1999.

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