A SOUTHEND businessman has demanded a fraud inquiry after being ousted from the top of one of the world’s biggest companies.

Michael Woodford, 51, was removed from his role as president and chief executive officer of Japanese optical equipment maker Olympus, best known for its cameras, after clashing with other bosses.

He has now asked the Serious Fraud Office to investigate claims Olympus Finance UK, a British subsidiary, paid nearly $700million to an unknown firm in the Cayman Islands.

Mr Woodford said: “We do not know who we paid this money to.

“Olympus is an iconic corporation and we are paying nearly two years’ profit to people we do not even know. It is just extraordinary.”

Mr Woodford, who has lived in Southend for three decades, joined a handful of foreigners who have made it to the top of a Japanese company when he took over the top job at Olympus in April.

He joined the company’s Southend-based medical subsidiary, KeyMed, in 1981 and became its managing director ten years later.

He ploughed thousands of pounds into road safety projects in the town and supported hundreds of charities.

In a blunt statement on Friday, the board of Olympus said Mr Woodford had been removed because he had “largely diverted” from other bosses and the division was causing “problems for decision-making”.

But Mr Woodford said he was called to an extraordinary board meeting after asking questions about the payments to the Cayman Islands.

He said he was banned from speaking while board members unanimously voted to remove him.

He claimed he was then escorted to his Tokyo flat and told to catch a bus to the airport, because the firm had confiscated his company car.

As the revelations emerged yesterday, Olympus chiefs said they would consider suing Mr Woodford for breach of confidentiality.

But Mr Woodford welcomed the threat.

He said: “I would be delighted for them to sue me in the High Court.

“There is a public interest here. Let the facts come out.”

Olympus chairman Tsu-yoshi Kikukawa responded to Mr Woodford’s claims in Japanese newspaper Nikkei yesterday.

He said the amount paid to the Cayman Islands firm was only half what Mr Woodford had alleged.

No official statement has been released so far by Olympus UK .