The former owner of collapsed apprenticeship giant 3aaa is attempting to sue the Department for Education for over £37 million.
Peter Marples and three other members of his family recently filed a lawsuit in the high court that claims negligence and “misfeasance” in public office.
The claim centres around the sale of 3aaa (Aspire Achieve Advance Ltd) to Trilantic Capital Partners in 2016, which was aborted after the DfE’s then-Skills Funding Agency refused to sign off on the deal because officials feared a change of control would prejudice delivery of the agency’s contracts.
Court documents seen by FE Week claim the refusal was unjustified. If the acquisition completed, the Marples family would have immediately received the sum of £26,752,979 as well as “deferred consideration” in the form of “roll over loan notes” to the value of £10,271,389, the documents claim.
