Steve Curtis claims unfair dismissal as employment tribunal told of heated clash between directors at Wrexham based British Association for Shooting and Conservation
A former top cop and United Nations Police Commissioner swore at and threatened to kill a colleague at a gun club, a tribunal heard.
Steve Curtis, a former acting assistant chief constable of North Wales who served for two years with the UN in Kosovo, clashed with a senior director of the Rossett-based British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).
An employment tribunal in Chester heard details of bitter in-fighting at the BASC which has 145,000 members.
Mr Curtis who was the organisation's HR and operations director claims he was the victim of a conspiracy to oust him from his job and is claiming unfair dismissal from the BASC.
The tribunal heard how Mr Curtis of Manor Lane, Rossett, clashed with the BASC's North of England regional director Alasdair Mitchell.
'I swear I will kill you..'
Mr Curtis told the tribunal that Mr Mitchell had been "a source of a number of difficulties from an operational and HR perspective", forever criticising head office staff and colleagues.
Matters came to a head at a staff meeting at the Grosvenor Hotel, Pulford, in October, 2014, after Mr Mitchell had made a speech again criticising head office staff.
In a clash which followed Mr Curtis called him "a complete ---t" and said: “I swear I will kill you.”
When Mr Mitchell complained to BASC chief executive Richard Ali, Mr Curtis wrote a letter of apology and was reprimanded.
'I was mortified by what I apparently said...'
He told the tribunal that he remembered using the "c" word because he used it so rarely but he could not remember threatening to kill Mr Mitchell.
“I was mortified when I later discovered what I had apparently said,” he said.
Mr Curtis said he accepted that he had acted inappropriately and felt deeply ashamed and embarrassed about the incident.
“I had been in some horrendous situations in my 30 years as a police officer but even then had never before acted in an aggressive way even in those situations,” he said.
Mr Curtis eventually resigned from the organisation just as he was about to be dismissed in May, 2016, and is claiming unfair dismissal.
'I'm victim of campaign to damage my reputation'
The tribunal also heard that chief executive Mr Ali who was chief executive at the time, and Gary Ashton, another former senior police officer who was the organisation’s Director Wales and Sporting Services, were both subsequently suspended and remain so.
Two separate inquiries were held into the whole situation, one of them by independent solicitors Hill Dickinson, and Mr Curtis was exonerated.
Alan Jarrett, who was chairman at the time, resigned in June , 2016, and was quoted as saying: “It is obvious to me that council remains dysfunctional and unable or unwilling to take action against those...named in the Hill-Dickinson report.”
Mr Mitchell resigned in December, 2015, but after being asked to reconsider his decision said he would do so only if a thorough investigation was held into the alleged bullying and corporate governance.
He was supported by various members of the BASC council who pressed for yet another inquiry.
Mr Curtis who joined the BASC in 2013 told the hearing: “There is no doubt in my mind that the campaign against me has been the product of a conspiracy with Alasdair Mitchell and involving a number of councillors that I should be removed from the organisation.”
He said the council’s refusal to accept the findings of the independent investigation convinced him that he had no choice but to resign. “Even though I have resigned from the organisation I am still the victim of a continuing campaign to damage my reputation,” he added.
The hearing is expected to last several days.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/former-north-wales-top-cop-12670440
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