The former managing director of Allied Newspapers, Adrian Hillman, has denied claims by his former employers that he used company funds without the authorisation of the board of directors.

Mr Hillman made his denial in a judicial letter after Allied Newspapers last week filed a judicial letter calling on him to refund money he had used without authorisation during his tenure.

The company called on Mr Hillman to repay amounts spent on company credit cards or transferred to other bank accounts without authorisation, justification or documentation.

It also called on Mr Hillman to repay it money related to the unauthorised purchase of cars using company funds as well as money spent on “unilateral and abusive” wage increases he awarded himself.

But Mr Hillman said the claims were completely baseless. He denied making unauthorised spending and said such spending was regularly registered and approved by the auditors and the board, as well as the annual general meeting.

This applied also to the car bought for his use as well as other cars, which were bought in line with company practice.

He said that any pay rise he received was revealed to the board and approved by the company in its AGM. 

Mr Hillman also insisted that he had a right to be given a copy of a report commissioned by the company, since it was about his actions within the company

Last week, four months after he resigned from the company, Mr Hillman filed a case before the Industrial Tribunal claiming unfair dismissal. The board of directors of Allied Newspapers is rejecting the claims.

In March, blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia had alleged on her blog that Mr Hillman had received kickbacks from the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, who owns Kasco Ltd, a paper supplier, for awarding work contracts at Progress Press to Kasco.

Mr Hillman and Mr Schembri had denied the accusations. Both men's names had appeared in the Panama Papers affair, for owning offshore companies in secretive jurisdictions.