Veteran agent loses employment tribunal after giving false evidence

An estate agent with a career of nearly 24 years has lost his employment tribunal after a judge ruled he gave false evidence.

Nick Elgey, the former managing director of The Cumberland Estate Agency in Cumbria, was described as deliberately trying to mislead the court hearing the five day tribunal, with information which he knew to be untrue. 

The News & Star local newspaper and website says Elgey resigned his post in April 2016 after alleging he had been "hideously" mistreated, leaving him no viable option but to quit.

Elgey described the working environment at the agency as being akin to that in North Korea but the tribunal judge, Jessica Hill, dismissed his claims and said many of the incidents of which he complained were merely the typical conduct of people engaged in day to day business; Elgey's perception of how he was treated was completely at odds with the evidence.

The judge said that Elgey had submitted written statements containing potentially damaging allegations against a colleague, despite knowing that an investigation had found the colleague innocent of any wrongdoing.

In addition, said Judge Hill, Elgey's motivation was to damage the reputation of the colleague, and separately to bring down the agency's chief executive. 

"The tribunal views this conduct as a deliberate attempt to mislead it and provide evidence that he knew was untruthful" she said.

The tribunal also heard that Elgey - while apparently on sick leave from the agency which employed him - apparently did "therapeutic" work with a property developer, which put him in breach of his employment contract.

You can read the full local press account of the tribunal and its discoveries here.