Sacked British Council manager loses employment tribunal case

Angela Gibbins was dismissed from her role as head of global estates in August last year after making comments about the royal family on a Facebook post

A former senior manager at the British Council who was sacked over anti-monarchy comments on a Facebook post that described Prince George as “a f***ing d***head” has lost her employment tribunal claim for wrongful dismissal and discrimination.

Angela Gibbins was dismissed from her £77,800-a-year job as head of global estates at the British Council on 8 August 2016, after comments she had made on Facebook criticising the monarchy and Prince George appeared in The Sun newspaper, causing a backlash against her and the charity.

The Queen is the patron of the British Council, which had an income of £979.6m in the year to 31 March 2016.

An image of Prince George was posted by the band the Dub Pistols on its Facebook page, with the caption “I know he’s only 2 years old, but Prince George already looks like a f***ing d***head”. The band added: “Too much?”

In a discussion with friends underneath the picture, which Gibbins said she believed was visible only to her 150 Facebook friends, Gibbins commented: “White privilege. That cheeky grin is the (already locked-in) innate knowledge that he is royal, rich, advantaged and will never know *any* difficulties or hardships in life. Let’s find photos of 3yo Syrian refugee children and see if they look alike, eh?”

She went on to say she did not hate any human being, but added: “I don’t believe the royal family have any place in a modern democracy, least of all when they live on public money.”

Tribunal papers published last week say it was unclear how the comments came into the public domain, but they might have been passed on by one of Gibbins’ friends or been visible to friends of friends.

The Sun’s initial coverage of the comments failed to make clear that Gibbins herself was not responsible for the obscene remark about Prince George in the picture’s caption, and provoked outrage against the charity and calls for Gibbins to be sacked.

An internal British Council investigation into the incident concluded that Gibbins had, although inadvertently, breached the council’s code of conduct in making the comments and brought the charity into disrepute, according to the tribunal papers.

Gibbins took the charity to tribunal, arguing that she had been discriminated against because of her republican beliefs and had been unfairly or wrongfully dismissed.

But the tribunal, which heard the case in July, rejected her claims, concluding there had been “reckless risk-taking” and “gross misconduct” by Gibbins in posting the comments.

The tribunal document says it concluded Gibbins was seen to have bought the charity into disrepute and sacked not because she expressed a republican belief, but because “she had associated herself with a distasteful and personal attack on a small child”.

The tribunal report says that, although an employer might have chosen to discipline Gibbins without sacking her, no member of the tribunal could say it was unreasonable to dismiss her.

“Clearly the claimant deserves some sympathy for her slip of judgment, but that does not mean the decision was unfair,” the report says.

A British Council spokeswoman said: “While we recognise the difficult nature of this process for all involved, we are pleased that the tribunal has found in our favour in relation to all of the claims. The British Council looks to act with integrity and respect in all that we do to promote the UK and our position in the world.”

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Highland Hospice loses £500k to ‘vishing and spoofing fraud’

Highlands and Islands Police are investigating a number of incidents in which fraudsters posed as bank representatives to make victims hand over financial information

A Scottish hospice has lost approximately £500,000 to a cyber crime, police have confirmed.

Highland Hospice lost the money in a “vishing and spoofing fraud”, the Highland and Islands Police Division said in a statement.

Vishing is where a fraudster makes a telephone call posing as a bank representative to persuade the victim to hand over financial information.

The police statement said the hospice was one of a number of victims in the Highlands and the fraudsters had stolen a total of £2.5m between 19 July and 30 July from businesses in the region.

The police said they were aware of other attempts to defraud hospices in recent weeks, but they had not established if these cases were linked.

Last month, Bury Hospice lost £235,000 in an “elaborate” fraud involving an online virus check, and said other charities in Greater Manchester had been targeted in a similar way.

Bolton Hospice also narrowly avoided a “sophisticated fraud” last month that involved contacting a major supplier and having the hospice’s bank’s phone number appear on the caller display.

Kenny Steele, chief executive of Highland Hospice, said: “Although this is a horrendous situation, it will not have an immediate impact on operations. There is resilience built into the hospice financial systems to cope with these types of risk to ensure that our top priority of patient and family care and wellbeing is protected.

“We have put in additional security measures and are working with the police and banking authorities to work on recovery of the funds and track the perpetrators. We also hope that releasing this information will help to protect other businesses in the area.”

Detective Inspector Iain McPhail, from the Economic Crime and Financial Investigation Unit at Police Scotland, said the force was carrying out a thorough investigation of the incident.

He said some of the money had been recovered and police were working to recover the rest of the stolen funds.

“I would again urge people to be on their guard against unsolicited calls from someone claiming to be from their bank,” he said.

“Always double-check numbers you’re given to call back to or call through the main customer care number for the organisation and ask to be put through.

“If you decide to ring back and verify the call, it is advisable to do so on a different phone line, such as another landline or your mobile. If you are still unsure, consider visiting your local branch instead of speaking to someone over the phone.”

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