Why I blew the whistle

The number of people calling a national helpline to blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the workplace has more than doubled in the past five years, the charity Public Concern at Work has said.

Financial misconduct and workplace safety are the top causes of concern

One person who alerted his boss to wrongdoing by colleagues told BBC News Online his story.

Gary Brown blew the whistle on a senior member of staff at Abbey National nine years ago.

He worked in the bank's marketing department - in charge of advertising campaigns and in-store sales promotions.

But in 1993 when two ideas agencies were fighting to win business from the bank, he feared something was not quite right.

"My boss's boss came up and said he wanted to use the firm run by a friend-of-a-friend of his.

"The process became very suspicious. Gradually that boss was agreeing to double the pay for the firm."

Gary says that when he found their work unsatisfactory he tried to cut back on the agency's fees but was overruled.

It wasn't negative - it was morally uplifting Gary Brown

"I tried to sack them, but they were kept on.

"Six months later they had a review and somehow were granted a 100% pay rise."

Eventually he went away and "wrote a paper" summarising the problems with the company - shoddy work, poor ideas, overpayment.

Gary presented the findings to his boss, who in turn showed them to the man in question.

Dossier

But although the senior manager "lost his temper and threw things", Gary's own boss refused to help and the situation remained.

Gary began compiling a dossier that eventually became an inch thick - detailing the work, problems and even accounts filed by the agency.

In May 1994 he went public with his findings, an internal investigation began and two weeks later the man suspected of wrongdoing was suspended.

If companies don't have a policy on whistle blowing they're asking to be ripped off Gary Brown

However, the atmosphere in the department became so unpleasant that Mr Brown left the company to work elsewhere.

Eventually the case came to court, with the trial lasting eight months.

In June 1997 the defendant was sent to prison for eight years for his part in stealing £2m ($3.3m). Four other companies were also involved.

Mr Brown received a commendation from the judge, £25,000 from Abbey National and an invitation to rejoin the bank.

After his return in 1998 he was promoted "almost once a year".

Avoiding Maxwell

He added: "Ironically the last position I had was marketing operations director - almost the same as the man who I'd blown the whistle on."

Mr Brown has since left the bank and is now a trustee of Public Concern at Work - a position he's proud of.

"In 1993 I'd never heard of PCAW, my whistle blowing was done through instinct."

But, he says, he felt strangely good about the case: "It wasn't negative it was morally uplifting."

Now he says he wants more people to be encouraged to blow the whistle on dodgy practices, saying major scandals such as the Maxwell pensions uproar could have been avoided.

"It would be much better if people did speak out. If companies don't have a policy on whistle blowing they're asking to be ripped off," he adds.

"Generally, it is more important for culture to change.

"Bad things won't happen, we're getting away from the 'grassing' or 'telling tales' culture.

"We need to move UK culture to the point where the public will speak out."

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Your comments:

In the mid 80's I worked at well-known Charing Cross Road bookshop. It soon became obvious that there was a scam going on with unordered (and unsellable) second hand books being delivered to us from a distributor with invoices which were paid. After a few weeks on the shelves they were collected up by the distributor's rep and returned. As if by magic they re-appeared days later to be put back on the shelves ad infinitum. I marked one book to be absolutely certain and it indeed reappeared in the very next delivery after it had been sent back. I decided to refuse delivery of these unordered books and was told that they had been personally ordered in by the general manager and the paperwork was eventually produced to prove it. I quietly asked around and discovered that the manager ordering the unwanted books was apparently director of the distributor that supplied them. I took my concerns to another manager. A few hours later I was handed a P45. Almost 15 years later I read in the paper that a fraud had been discovered at the shop and the general manager was implicated.
Bob, England

Many years ago I was the head-waitress at a restaurant, where I organised wages and the rota for the staff. A couple of months after starting this new role I noticed several discrepancies in the wage list (we all had to sign it to confirm we had received our pay). There were names on there that had never worked at the restaurant or had left. I reported my boss to the brewery chain that owned us. They in turn were very kind, sympathetic and believed me! I collected evidence for them and he was prosecuted for Tax Fraud and (obviously) sacked. This was 10 years ago when I was 17 yrs old. I now work for Customs & Excise and give assistance in cases where managers are committing Tax Fraud. I feel that anyone who is committed to telling the truth should be applauded and commended.
Charlotte , England

I blew the whistle on wrongdoing in the statutory sector. I lost my job eventually after threats, harassment and discrimination. I was told I was naive to speak out, after intimidation caused some of my informers to retract their "evidence" (or lose their jobs). A subsequent "inquiry" removed several of the "wrong doers", but the damage was done. It was three years before action was taken. I remain traumatised, ill and unemployed.
william hawkins, Wales /UK

My experiences in the workplace have related to the boss himself being responsible for wrongdoing. In a previous position as an accountant I was put under pressure several times by a director to fudge the accounts in order to minimise tax liability from higher than expected profits. I felt under extreme pressure and torn between my duty as an employee, the desire to keep my job, and the desire to work for an honest company and not rip off the country and taxpayers, including myself. In one instance, I was ordered to create fictitious invoices of $160,000 at the end of the financial year, on turnover of about $1m, in order to reduce tax liability. I argued and eventually refused, creating a heated argument. I later approached another director and advised him of the situation. When I attended a meeting with the two directors over the issue, I took a work colleague with me from the accounting area as a witness. In the meeting I was told by the first director that if I didn't comply that we would part company. I still refused, putting my job on the line. Eventually, he backed down at the end of the meeting, but it changed the relationship I had with my boss and how I felt about my position. Two other times since then I was put under pressure to at least recognise income in the wrong financial year in order to minimise tax. In one of these instances I complied, being under pressure and not wanting to go through all the drama again, but having made detailed notes of all events for me to take home in the event of an investigation. The sickener is that as an employee you are responsible and have a duty to follow instructions from the directors of the company you work for, with directors being ultimately responsible for fraud. I remember answering ethical dilemma questions at university (for accounting) where in situations as described above you were deemed incorrect if you refused to follow instructions from the director to commit such acts, with your only comfort being that you could contact the professional body for advice.
Daren, Australia

If companies appointed one named member of staff to be a whistleblower's point of contact, this would act as a deterrent to all the company's employees. If however any incidents did occur, it would make it easier for the employee to alert the company.
Trevor Jones, Braintree, England

No but I have come close to it. What prevented me from doing it was "fear"! Fear for my family, fear for my job, fear of being persecuted etc. That was quite some years ago when there seemed to be no well defined policy on whistle blowing. Today the climate is more favourable to the whistleblower as firms have well defined policies. I could have blown on one or two 'stories' but now they will remain only in my memory.
r steward, GB

People are afraid to speak the truth because they are labelled as whistleblowers. This has a bad connotation like being untrustworthy or being a spy. People like Gary Brown should be placed forward by media as an exemplary citizen. Speaking the truth is the proper term, not being called a whistleblower.
carlos, USA

I did it once before and was sacked. Never again. No matter what they say, they can't give you a job if you are sacked for being honest. The bill's have to be paid and there is no safety net for people who blow the whistle. Leave the job and get another is the best advice.
Gary Finnigan, UK

I used to work for the IT department of one of the largest reinsurance companies in the City. There was a case when I was supposed to test a few software packages and recommend the best. However, I was being instructed to recommend a specific package that was the choice of the manager in charge, even though it wasn't necessarily the best option, 'taking into consideration the good relationship with the software supplier'. A colleague who had to choose the new desktop PC for the corporate had gone on a golf holiday abroad, having been invited by a salesperson of one of the potential suppliers. I wouldn't blow the whistle because I was new and in those old City establishments you either mind your own business or you're out.
Moshe, UK