HE had a hugely well-paid job with one of the City’s most successful businesses. He was offered £6m to move to a rival. But Tony Verrier wanted more - and was offered more - by yet another international firm bidding for his services.

And this weekend, Verrier’s quest to add to his fortune threatened to reignite a row between institutions at the heart of the City’s dealing operations over their attempts to poach staff from rivals.

Verrier has been suspended from his job as chief operating officer of Tullett Prebon, the £950m interdealer broker headed by City deal-maker Terry Smith. Verrier’s salary was believed to be around £2m a year. The drama comes just as Tullett ponders a merger with rival GFI.

Verrier’s life has been thrown into turmoil. And it is all because of a chance encounter with comedian Russell Brand in a Malaysian hotel.

Extraordinary details have emerged of Verrier’s moves to add to his wealth - wealth that has already bought him a £1.2m house in Essex, a luxurious Mediterranean villa and stakes in several racehorses.

But crucially for the City, lawyers now predict the affair will sharpen broking firms’ determination to ensure that staff who want to leave are forced to work their full notice periods - and that recruits signing up for a new job are prevented from reneging on their agreements.

Verrier, 44, told Smith in May that he intended to leave, later revealing he was joining another interdealer broker, part of Switzerland’s Com-pagnie Financière Tradition.

Smith, a City bruiser with a passion for boxing, gave a typically blunt response. He said this weekend: “Mr Verrier has a contract that runs until next spring, so I said: ‘Fine. Get back to your desk and carry on working’.”

Then, three weeks ago, Verrier told Smith he was ill and had been ordered to take a fortnight off work.

But instead of recuperating at his home with his wife, Karen, Verrier headed to Malaysia, where he spent four nights in the Four Seasons Hotel on the island resort of Langkawi. Verrier checked into the £250 a night hotel with a companion.

The choice of hotel was fateful. As Verrier sat outside the Four Seasons with his companion, they started chatting with one of the hotel’s celebrity guests, comedian Russell Brand. A sharp-eyed bystander snapped a picture of the happy group.

Within days, Smith was alerted to the fact his lieutenant, who was meant to be off sick, was in fact holidaying in Malaysia.

When The Sunday Times approached Smith, he said: “It is rather interesting to take your sick leave in Malaysia when you live in Essex. He didn’t tell us he was on holiday. If you are on sick leave, I don’t think getting on a plane for a 12-hour flight to Malaysia is an obvious thing to do. In any case, he was meant to let us know where he was during this sick leave.” From e-mails that went through Tullett Prebon’s computer system, Smith discovered Verrier had decided not to join Tradition after all. Instead, he was going to BGC, another big player in interdealer broking. Last weekend, Verrier had e-mailed Patrick Combes, president of Tradition, and told him: “I do not believe that me joining Tradition would be either good for myself or for the Tradition group.” He went on: “I have therefore decided to join BGC.”

According to insiders, Combes was initially bewildered that his star signing had opted to go elsewhere. Combes did not return calls from The Sunday Times.

Verrier had been well-rewarded at Tullett. His basic salary was the highest among the firm’s employees - higher, even, than Smith’s basic pay. Bonuses brought his total package to around £2m. Verrier always travelled first class on company business. His expenses last year ran into six figures. He accumulated properties galore, a stable of cars including a Lamborghini and racehorses - one of which, Smokey Storm, in which Verrier has a 20% stake, won the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom in June.

Offers from other broking houses were, however, sufficiently generous to lure him away. It is thought Verrier was to have been on a basic £1m a year with the Swiss-owned Tradition – plus the prospect of bonuses. But according to Tradition insiders, the most striking element of the package guaranteed Verrier a further £6m through a loan deal: he would have been lent the money by Tradition, then the loan would be written off over a number of years.

BGC apparently managed to offer a more attractive all-round deal than Tradition - hence Verrier’s change of heart.

For Smith at Tullett Prebon, it is scarcely important where Verrier goes. But he wants to ensure Verrier’s exit does not trigger the departure of other key staff. A month ago, Len Harvey, chief executive of Tullett Prebon Asia, quit to join Tradition. More than two dozen people from Tullett’s Manila office resigned last Tuesday, several switching to Tradition. There is no evidence that any of their departures are linked to Verrier’s decision to leave Tullett.

Smith was also intensely interested in what Tullett information Verrier might take with him.

Last Wednesday Tullett went to the High Court in London and obtained an order against Verrier’s loyal personal assistant at the firm, Clare Howell. She had removed boxes of papers from Tullett’s City offices at the end of the previous week, arranging for them to be taken to her home in Billericay, Essex. She was ordered by the court to hand over the documents so Tullett could confirm they did not contain confidential company information. It appears nothing of significance has been found: the papers related only to Verrier’s private affairs.

It was Howell, 34, who had made Verrier’s travel arrangements for his trip to the Far East. She fixed his flight to Singapore, his stay in the city state’s Shangri-La hotel, and his long weekend in the Langkawi Four Seasons’ Upper Melaleuca Pavilion.

Howell did not respond to attempts to contact her, and Verrier declined to answer questions from The Sunday Times.

Last Thursday’s suspension of Verrier may mark the beginning of claims and counterclaims between the big players of interdealer broking. The firms have a history of litigation over attempts to poach staff.

Last month, Tullett won a court case in which an options trader had agreed to join the company but later changed his mind. The trader was ordered to pay more than £600,000.

If Verrier’s decision to switch his allegiance from Tradition to BGC triggers a claim against him for failing to go through with his plans to join the Swiss group, it will be ironic.

At Tullett, one person has been particularly vocal in championing the idea that people who sign up to join the firm should be obliged to follow through with their commitment. That person? Tony Verrier.

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