Well said Scotty….. and we were led down this conspiratorial path when Daphne hypothesised “there is clearly an attempt to defraud Gaven83”.
Lessons learnt in Strata: don’t go for the boots and all approach first-up – particularly when the other party hasn’t (yet), and when the issue is at hand is purely “they said he did, and he said he didn’t”.
As I originally suggested to Gaven, just deny any liability in the strongest possible and yet reasonable terms, and let the O/C prove otherwise (or as Scotty so eloquently put it – “tell them to go jump”).