Bester’s order and would be available to Bester upon payment of the sums found to be due. However, this was “simply untrue” in relation to the water-cooled grate and other items. Bester alleged that PBS knew or must have known that these statements were false. Alternatively, PBS was, at the very least, reckless as to the truth of its statements. These false statements influenced the second adjudicator’s decision. PBS accepted that its evidence in the adjudication was mistaken as to the location of the water-cooled grate. PBS also agreed that Bester would not be able to obtain all of the equipment and that no credit had in fact been offered for the equipment that was no longer available. However, there was no fraud. Throughout, it had been PBS, and not Bester, that had driven the proper resolution of this dispute. Even if some credit should have been given for the water-cooled grate, which had a value of around £400k, or any other equipment no longer available to Bester, PBS had a claim in the main action for in excess of £3.9 million in addition to the sums claimed here. There was also evidence of Bester’s weak financial position. By contrast, PBS was a solvent and established business. On reviewing the evidence, the Judge considered that it was “properly arguable” that a number of representations made in the adjudication were false. For example, the grate had been installed in Poland in September 2018, before the representations to the contrary were made to the adjudicator some two months later. It was also “properly arguable”, that PBS had made false representations to the adjudicator knowing them to be false, without belief in their truth or, at the very least, recklessly. Accordingly, there was an arguable case of fraud. And given that it was clear that the adjudicator had rejected Bester’s argument that credit should be given for the value of undelivered parts and equipment on the basis that these were bespoke items that had been manufactured to Bester’s order and which PBS had, up to that point, been unable to resell or use in other projects, it was “properly arguable” that the alleged false representations were intended to, and did, influence the adjudicator and that PBS thereby obtained a material advantage in the adjudication proceedings.