Previous employers tampered with evidence

[shortwoman]

My fiance was dismissed from work for gross misconduct in April 2008 after he was accused of spitting on another bus driver. His employers were adamant that he did it and showed CCTV footage from the two buses although they did not show anything and dismissed him. He appealed and loss. He then went to Tribunal but due to the lack of a Solicitor who had knowledge of Employment Law he also lost. He went to court and it was found that there was no spit on the driver and he won his court case. (His court case lasted a whole year by the way). We were convinced that his employers tampered with the CCTV footage as the timings were out and there were images on the CCTV that should not be there but we could not prove it at the time.

 

We have now got in contact with a CCTV technician who has found images on the CCTV footage which should not be there and he has informed us that the footage was tampered with to make it look as though the buses where running side by side when infact there were a large time difference.

 

Is there anything he can do about this?

[Bigredbus]

He won his case... WHy woul you do that now?

[shortwoman]

He only won his court case, he did not win his unfair dismissal case and has not managed to obtain a job since that time as his employers have been giving him unfavourable references. They are currently being investigated by the ICO.

[Bigredbus]

Do you have, or could you have access to that CCTV evidence and obtain a copy of it?

[shortwoman]

Yes, we have copies.

[Bigredbus]

Good... You need an expert transcript of that video, testifying that that CCTV footage has been tampered with for the purpose of justifying their disciplinary outcome.

[shortwoman]

ok, thank you but is there anything else we can do as this evidence was actually shown in court even though he won the court case.

[Bigredbus]

If he won his case against his company, then I still do not see what you inend to achieve by pursuing another case... He has not been reinstated post court, he won't be this time round... And what would you go for?

 

He should concentrate on the references issued by his former employer...

[shortwoman]

He does not want to be reinstated but the fact that they knowly dismissed him on evidence they concocted and also submitted tampered evidence in court, he would like to see justice done.

[Sidewinder]

The Court claim against the employer was for what? Were damages ordered?

 

You can't take this back to an Employment Tribunal, nor can you overturn the original decision, so the obvious area to concentrate on is one of defamation and malicious falsehood, where the employer has made damaging and false statements which may have deprived your fiancé of job opportunities. In those circumstances, were the claim to be successful, then damages should be awarded.

[RachelMD]

Yes, I'm confused. What was the court application separate from the ET?

[Mash It Up Harry]

I happen to be what would be considered by a court of law as an 'expert witness' in the field of CCTV. It is virtually impossible to 'tamper' with digital CCTV. The reason for this is that almost all digital CCTV systems used in public transport apply a digital watermark to the data which would make it incredibly difficult to alter or tamper with the data. Since the emergence of digital systems over analogue (VHS) based systems I am not aware of any cases that have come to light that has proved digital CCTV has been tampered with (if it were, it would be very easy to detect due to the watermark that is applied to the data).

 

What I beleive is more relevent in your case is that CCTV is very rarely the whole story but merely a piece of the jigsaw. Whether or not your fiance did this or not, the CCTV clearly wasn't conclusive so (I/m assuming) your employers relied on witness statements and made a decision based on the information contained within them.