Former Greenwich Yacht Club caption Stefan Oloffs accused of harassing commodore Richard Phillips in £320,000 houseboat row

A bitter dispute at a prestigious yacht club has turned into a £320,000 court battle; A former skipper is accused of harassing the commodore over an 80-foot Dutch houseboat.

Former Greenwich Yacht Club cruiser skipper Stefan Oloffs is alleged to have been following then-commodore Richard Phillips online.

Mr Oloffs claimed Mr Phillips received “preferential treatment” when securing a mooring for his “magnificent” barge, accusing him of “abusing his position within the club” to avoid significant mooring fees.

The alleged campaign against Mr Phillips involved posting allegations in a WhatsApp group with 230 club members, making written complaints about the commodore’s behavior to the Port of London Authority and creating a dedicated website called “Barge Gate”.

Mr Phillips is now seeking £20,000 in damages, claiming he was subjected to a “public campaign of harassment” that caused “significant distress, loss of sleep, anxiety and social embarrassment” as well as “humiliation and loss of dignity”.

Legal fees in the case could reach an additional £300,000.

Mr. Oloffs, a 54-year-old foreign language teacher, is trying to have the harassment claim dismissed. He describes the action as “completely unnecessary” and motivated by Mr Phillips’ desire for “incrimination and financial pressure” on himself.

The High Court in London heard the two sailors served on the yacht club’s council at one point, with Mr Phillips, 60, starting out as head of IT before being appointed Rear Admiral and eventually becoming a full Admiral in December 2022.

Mr Oloffs is due to be expelled from the yacht club in 2024, while Mr Phillips steps down as commander this year.

The two clashed because Mr Phillips, who runs a healthcare software company, needed a dock for the 80-metre barge Verandering, which he was transporting to London for sale.

The court heard that in June 2023, Mr Oloffs came under fire for allegedly “underpaying” mooring fees for his ship at the club.

Despite an internal investigation that “exonerated” the then-commissioner of impropriety, his lawyers said his former club colleague subsequently “led a public campaign of harassment” against him in a bid to tarnish his name, leaving Mr Phillips plagued with “annoyance, humiliation, embarrassment and loss of reputation”.

As a result, she is suing Mr Oloffs for approximately £20,000 in damages for alleged sustained harassment, breach of trust and misuse of her personal data; this claim could lead to legal costs of up to £300,000 if the case goes to trial.

Mr. Oloffs’ lawyers called the harassment allegation “completely unnecessary” and said it was not serious enough to amount to actual harassment if proven.

They say the case against him is a personal “vendetta” driven by a desire for “incrimination and financial pressure.”

The dispute reached the Supreme Court last week; Mr Oloffs’ legal team had urged the judge, Ms Justice Hill, to withdraw the former club commander’s harassment claim.

Opposing the application, Mr Phillips’ lawyer Mariyam Kamil detailed the long-term nature of the alleged harassment campaign as well as the emotional impact it had on her client.

He said: “The defendant had made a serious allegation against the plaintiff in June 2023 to 13 members of the club, including 12 council members.

“Broadly speaking, the allegation was that Mr Phillips abused his position within the club to obtain an improper financial advantage by underpaying mooring fees for the plaintiff’s barge Holland.”

The yacht club launched an investigation into the complaint, which cleared Mr Phillips of any wrongdoing.

Ms Kamil found that “there was no financial impropriety in the mooring of the barge, only management failure, and the allegations made by others were completely false and unfounded”.

He added: “However, the case of Mr Phillips is that from approximately July 2023 until March 2024, Mr Oloffs waged a public campaign of harassment against him, without recanting the findings of the investigation and despite repeated reminders from numerous individuals to abandon his campaign.

“The defendant waged a campaign of harassment against Mr Phillips over a long period of time, which involved deliberately and maliciously making serious and public allegations.

“These allegations were false, Mr. Oloffs knew they were false, and he was informed that they were false,” the attorney said, describing his conduct as “deliberate and motivated by a personal grievance against Mr. Phillips.”

The court heard the alleged campaign took the form of a complaint email sent by Mr Oloffs to 13 club members, the publication of allegations against Mr Phillips in a 230-member WhatsApp group, a written complaint to the Port of London Authority about the commodore’s behavior and the creation of the “Barge Gate” website.

His lawyer said Mr. Phillips had to defend himself in front of other club members and was “verbally criticized, berated or questioned” and even yelled at on two occasions about Mr. Oloffs’ unsubstantiated claims of preferential treatment.

But David Hirst, for Mr Oloffs, argued that the harassment allegation should be seen against the background of long-running legal wrangles between the men, adding that his client had apologized to Mr Phillips in the past and agreed “not to continue with any behavior aimed at Mr Phillips”.

He said his campaign “objected to what he perceived as preferential treatment by Mr Phillips for mooring a large barge to the best riverside location, at low rates and without consistent rental payments”, and argued that Mr Phillips, as a responsible person, should have to deal with “harsh” criticism at times.

When Mr. Phillips formally complained about it in February 2024, he said Mr. Oloffs “respected his feelings and discontinued his campaign.”

Mr Hirst argued the act of harassment was disproportionate and said legal fees in the case could ultimately reach around £300,000 if allowed to continue.

After a day in court, the judge reserved his decision to “strike out” the harassment allegation against Mr Oloffs.

Located about three miles downriver from Tower Bridge, Greenwich Yacht Club has approximately 400 members and hosts dinghy, cruiser and rowing facilities.

First founded in 1908 by Thames waterworkers and river workers, the club was once based in a riverside cottage but moved to its current iconic platform in the middle of the river in 2000.

The court also heard Mr Oloffs said he was “kicked out” of the yacht club in January 2024 after a “sloppy hearing” chaired by Mr Phillips, and later said he “repeatedly aired his complaints on the club’s social media, posted private financial information about a member online and spread what appeared to be defamatory allegations about a member”.

His appeal to the club against the expulsion decision has not been decided yet.