Parcel delivery firm Yodel says it is taking legal action against its former owner to recover money it says was ‘inappropriately taken’.

Yodel owner InPost issued a statement after the High Court of Justice in London rejected a bid by Jacob Corlett - who grew up in the Isle of Man - to regain control of the company.

Mr Corlett, who had sold Yodel for £1, brought the action to enforce purported warrant instruments that would have granted his companies Shift and Corja majority control of Yodel.

However, after a two-week-long trial, the judge concluded that the warrant documents were not genuine.

The judge concluded that Mr Corlett had probably forged the signature of his mother, Tamara Gregory.

Accountant Ms Gregory, head of finance at the Shift Group, lives in the Isle of Man.

InPost, which acquired Yodel in April this year, says the ruling marked ‘another important step forward in the ongoing transformation of Yodel’ under its ownership.

It said: ‘The successful conclusion of this trial now permits Yodel to continue its legal action to recover monies it argues were taken from Yodel inappropriately during Mr Corlett’s four months in control.

‘Yodel will take all necessary steps to recover these funds and the costs of both legal actions from Corlett and his associates.

‘InPost welcomes the court’s decision, which reinforces the company’s position and allows it to continue executing its strategic restructuring of Yodel.’

Mr Corlett, a 31-year-old logistics entrepreneur, launched a takeover of Yodel in January last year, buying the company for £1 as part of a plan to merge it with his own parcels company, Shift.

But within six months, Yodel was unable to pay its debts to HM Revenue and Customs and commercial partners, forcing him to sell the business, again for £1, to Judge Logistics Ltd (JLL) in June 2024.

Then Polish-based InPost bought JLL in a £106m deal.

Following legal action launched against him by Yodel, including for breach of fiduciary duty during his time as a director, Mr Corlett launched a counterclaim intended to regain control of Yodel.

His claim alleged that at the time Yodel was sold to JLL, he owned warrants granting companies owned by him a majority stake in the business.

Yodel disputed the authenticity of the documents.

Throwing out the counterclaim, Mr Justice Fancourt concluded that it was ‘impossible to accept that the documents are probably genuine’.

He said the second warrant document was created at some later date and then backdated.

Evidence of handwriting experts was that the ‘documents in dispute were suspicious, showed many signs of forgery, and probably were forged,’ he said.

The judge said and both Mr Corlett and Ms Gregory had lied to the court and the latter’s account of signing the documents had been ‘an attempt by a loving mother to help her son’.

Mr Justice Fancourt said that Mr Corlett had ‘not given a moment’s thought’ to how trade creditors, landlords and HMRC would have their debts repaid.