HAMMOND Suddards debt collection manager Richard Helliwell has left the Leeds firm because he claims he was in disagreement with partners over the restructuring of his department

HAMMOND Suddards debt collection manager Richard Helliwell has left the Leeds firm because he claims he was in disagreement with partners over the restructuring of his department.

Helliwell, who has joined Halifax firm Wilkinson Woodward & Ludlam, says the move was prompted by the appointment of partner Simon Stell as day to day manager of his large debt collection department.

"I didn't think the department was going in the right direction. They wanted to have more managers, I thought that was putting the squeeze on the budget for staff salaries," he says.

But Stell says the decision for a partner to take a more hands on approach to the department has been a success.

Of his relationship to Helliwell, a legal executive, he adds: "We always got on well. There were no feelings of animosity between us."

Helliwell's new brief as credit management and debt recovery manager is to boost Wilkinson's client base and he says his extensive contacts in Leeds will certainly help.