Tribunal appeal abandoned

Flintshire council will not take a case to the Court of Appeal

A council has decided not to go to the Court of Appeal to contest tribunal rulings which found in favour of their former internal auditor.

Andy Sutton successfully claimed constructive dismissal and victimisation against Flintshire council at an employment tribunal last year.

After failing to agree a financial settlement, the council met to consider taking the case to the Court of Appeal.

Following Flintshire's decision not to appeal, the financial settlement will now be decided by the original employment tribunal panel which found in favour of Mr Sutton in March 2002.

The council had previously offered Mr Sutton a financial settlement, which he dismissed as totally unrealistic.

Mr Sutton has already said that his legal costs now run "well into six figures" and that his loss of salary amounts to £100,000.

Andy Sutton won his case for constructive dismissal against the authority

Those figures do not take into account the stress, loss of pension rights and any possible detrimental effect the case might have on his future employment prospects, he said.

Mr Sutton has also lodged a claim for personal injury in the civil courts.

No date has yet been set for either the employment tribunal's remedies hearing at which compensation will be decided, or for the civil case.

The original tribunal, in Shrewsbury, heard that Mr Sutton had been forced to quit his job after being stopped from accessing documents linked to alleged fraud at the council.