THE North-East engineering firm involved in a multi-million court battle over the Wembley Stadium project faces an anxious wait after finishing its submissions.

Cleveland Bridge UK, which is based in Darlington, yesterday gave its closing statement to the Technology and Construction court in London. It must now wait until next month for a verdict.

Cleveland Bridge is involved in the multi-million pound battle with the stadium developers, Australian firm Multiplex.

Today sees the final day of the case, when Multiplex is expected to give its closing statement.

Cleveland Bridge was contracted to carry out structural work at the stadium, including the iconic arch. However, it pulled out of the work only a week after completing the arch and handed over work to Hollandia.

Cleveland Bridge is being sued by Multiplex for £45m in damages.

In return, the Darlington company is counter-suing Multiplex for £22.6m.

Both sides are claiming the other carried out dirty tricks and underhand tactics in its handling of the case.

Yesterday's hearing was told Multiplex was "over-aggressive" in its timetable for the completion of Wembley.

Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Cleveland Bridge, said the design was not ready when Multiplex had promised.

He said: "Multiplex knew that the design had not been finalised, but did not make proper allowance for this in its contract with Cleveland Bridge. The result of this was that the drawings which Cleveland Bridge required for fabricating the steel were delivered many months late and (the company) expended substantial sums on 'acceleration measures'.

"As a result, Cleveland Bridge faced a serious cash crisis."

Mr Tomlinson claimed Multiplex had secret talks with other contractors about finishing the work even as Cleveland Bridge struggled to meet the timetable.

Mr Tomlinson accused Multiplex of organising an "Armageddon Plan" aimed at putting the company out of business.

The hearing has heard how an e-mail from Matt Stagg, from Multiplex, said Cleveland Bridge should be "fixed and f**k them later".

Mr Tomlinson said: "The word 'fixed' in this context carries the connotation of 'set up'. The meaning of the latter word is fairly obvious - to hit CBUK with massive claims in the hope that they fall over."

Cleveland Bridge managing director Brian Rogan also claimed he overheard someone at Wembley saying once his company had erected the arch, "those f*****s are off the job".

Mr Tomlinson said: "Multiplex was, of course, entitled to make contingency plans to allow for the possibility that no agreement would be reached with Cleveland Bridge and to exercise its contractual rights in order to protect what it believed to be its own best interests.

"But what it in fact did went beyond contingency planning or 'commercial hardball', crossing the line into unlawful conduct."

After leaving the project, Cleveland Bridge was forced to make 300 redundancies.

Multiplex has said it suffered a £45m loss on the Wembley project.

It has blamed the change of contractor for the steel erection as one of the reasons for the loss, which wiped nearly a fifth off the value of the Multiplex share price.

A verdict is expected by June 5 or 6.