A court battle has erupted between a chain of York sandwich shops and a woman who bought one of the firm's stores.

In a civil case at Teesside Combined Courts, Lawries of York and Penelope Stansfield are suing each other for considerable damages following the sale of a sandwich shop in Bridge Street, York.

David Lawrie, the owner of Lawries of York, claims Mrs Stansfield owes him arrears for stock and rent, which he had to pay the landlord of the property after Mrs Stansfield gave up the business only two months after taking it on.

Mrs Stansfield, of Newcastle, is making a counter-claim for £100,000 that she was sold a business that had been represented as more valuable than it actually was.

Mrs Stansfield bought the Bridge Street sandwich shop in June 1999 but sold it back to Mr Lawrie, who now lives in Scotland, only two months later because of the dismal business she says the shop was doing.

On the first day of the hearing, Richard Merritt, representing Mrs Stansfield, said that before the sale, Mr Lawrie had financial figures which showed the shop's weekly turnover was dropping.

Mr Merritt told Mr Lawrie, who was on the witness stand, that it was alleged he had misrepresented the financial position of the business to Mrs Stansfield.

But Mr Lawrie said that all the figures were available to Mrs Stansfield, though he accepted he should have "flagged up" the fact that the turnover was down.

He also stressed that out of all the financial figures for 1999 before the sale, Mrs Stansfield had only asked him to produce information on six weeks of business.

John Stiles, representing Mr Lawrie, said that his client had simply taken the figures on the week that was current at the time and worked backwards six weeks.

Mr Stiles put it to Mr Lawrie that there were "a number of potentialities" for Mrs Stansfield to make the shop profitable.

Mr Lawrie agreed, saying: "There was ample room at the back of the shop to do outside catering.

"There was always the possibility of opening on Sundays."

Mrs Stansfield was today due to take the witness stand and the respective counsel were expected to make their submissions to the court.

The case continues.

Updated: 11:10 Thursday, June 14, 2001