A MOBILE phone bill running into hundreds of pounds was at the centre of a legal dispute between a North-East football club and its former manager.

Former Darlington FC boss Simon Davey won an employment tribunal against the Blue Square Bet Conference Premier side after claiming breach of contract in relation to unpaid holiday entitlement and an unauthorised deduction from his wages.

Mr Davey left the Quakers in controversial fashion in June when he emailed to say he no longer wanted the responsibility of trying to engineer the club’s return to the Football League.

He opted to move to League Two side Hereford, from where he has since been sacked.

The Quakers claimed Mr Davey racked up the “extortionate”

phone bill on a club mobile while in the US immediately after his resignation.

Both parties had been in talks about how to resolve the issue, but Mr Davey opted to take the matter to a tribunal.

The decision, at a hearing in Manchester, was recorded as a “default judgement”, because the club did not submit any defence to Mr Davey’s legal challenge.

Although employment judge Paul Holmes ruled in Mr Davey’s favour, it is understood that he was awarded about £700, much less than he had been seeking.

Speaking after the hearing, a spokesman for Darlington FC said: “We never disputed that the previous manager was owed some holiday entitlement.

But having left the club, Simon Davey ran up a large bill on a club-owned mobile phone in a matter of days which we felt had to be deducted from what he was owed.

“We were working towards an amicable settlement, until Mr Davey insisted on taking the matter to a tribunal. We didn’t attend the tribunal as we felt we didn’t have a case to answer. “