The director of a subcontractor was sacked after being complicit in bribing a Hinkley Point C manager with a quad bike, a tribunal has heard.
Garrick Nisbet took Notus Heavy Lift Solutions, where he had been a director, to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.
Despite winning his claim, Judge Colm O’Rourke refused to award him compensation after finding it was “clear from the evidence that [Nisbet] was, on the balance of probabilities, complicit in bribery and corruption”.
Nisbet was dismissed in April 2023 by Notus. The employment tribunal in Bristol heard Nisbet had been accused by his employers of being complicit in bribing Ashley Daniels, who worked for French state energy company EDF, which is building two new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C.
The firm claimed Nisbet was involved in Daniels receiving an £11,000 quad bike, £2,000 in tickets for a boxing match in London in 2019 and a refill for his Montblanc fountain pen, “to ensure that work was directed” to Notus.
Nisbet claimed the limit of what he described as his “favours” to Daniels only amounted to lunches, coffee and biscuits. He said the boxing tickets were nothing to do with him and that the ink refill was his own spare.
But the judge heard he could not provide an “innocent” explanation for the quad bike.
Following his dismissal, Nisbet launched legal action for unfair dismissal.
However, despite his claim being upheld on the grounds the firm failed to conduct a “fair procedure”, the judge refused him any compensation after finding even if the correct process had been followed he would have been dismissed.
“While [Nisbet] may have been able to explain away some of the allegations against him, the core allegation against him, in relation to the quad bike, which has been forensically examined in this hearing, still remains incapable of an innocent explanation,” the judge said.
“My findings as to contributory fault make it clear that I judged the claimant to have been involved in bribery, despite his protestations to the contrary.”
Evidence seen by the tribunal included a text from Daniels to Nisbet showing a picture of a quad bike and Daniels “referring to ‘needing a hand’”, to which Nisbet replied with “a ‘thumbs-up’ emoji”.
“The core evidence upon which they relied were the exchanges about the quad bike which then (and now) are incapable of an innocent explanation and clearly implicate the claimant in personal involvement in bribing Mr Daniels,” the judge ruled.
“The other emails and the pen refill incident are merely background to that exchange of emails and texts, which alone justified the claimant’s dismissal.”
In one exchange, Nisbet described Daniels as a “greedy little toad” who was “hard to say no to”.
Both EDF and Notus Heavy Lift Solutions reported the incidents to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate, but the court heard Notus Heavy Lift Solutions was advised by its legal team not to take action “until informed by the Serious Fraud Office that they could do”.
After the go-ahead was given by solicitors, Nisbet was suspended, evicted from company-provided accommodation and later “summarily dismissed, with effect the next day”, his dismissal letter said.
According to the tribunal ruling, a dismissal letter given to Nisbet said: “You were involved in providing gifts and bribes to Ashley Daniels at EDF, which included your knowledge and involvement in the purchase of a £11,000 quad bike in the summer of 2019.”
The court heard Nisbet had been “worried” about what was happening.
“When it was further suggested that if indeed, he was worried, then he had sat on this information for three years,” the judge said.
It is understood Daniels has left EDF.
A spokesperson for Hinkley Point C said: “The project sets and enforces high standards for all employees, contractors and suppliers and will rigorously investigate and take action over inappropriate conduct.”
The SFO refused to confirm its involvement, but added: “Every report matters to us and is carefully assessed by our specialist team. Our policy is not to confirm nor deny whether we have received referrals or are conducting an investigation. This is to protect our operations.”