In Mr T Lumb v The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and others a former police officer was ostracised by colleagues, verbally abused, assaulted and then unfairly sacked after he complained that standards of work in a ‘toxic’ gun licence vetting unit were putting the public at risk, an employment tribunal has found.
Tim Lumb, 48, was subjected to what he describes as a ‘horrendous’ ordeal after he made allegations about working practices inside GMP’s Firearms Licensing Unit, where he worked as a civilian researcher.
Mr Lumb made a whistleblowing disclosure to his boss on October 4, 2017, alleging colleagues in the unit were putting the public at risk by failing to research phone, business, GP and internal police records during a review of gun licences. After ‘inadequacies’ were uncovered, an internal review of 10,000 paper gun licences issued by Greater Manchester Police was initiated in 2015.
Mr Lumb told an employment tribunal held in Manchester that he became so concerned about working practices in the unit – based at GMP’s Nexus House in Ashton-under-Lyne – that he started a diary of his concerns and eventually made whistleblowing allegations to his boss, Alex Millet, a retired superintendent who had returned to head up the department.
After informing Mr Millet of his concerns on October 4, 2014, Mr Lumb said he later penned ‘trigger notes’. He alleged colleagues whose work he was complaining about must have read these notes, as he found them ‘poking out’ of his briefcase when he returned to his desk.
In the days that followed, he said colleagues ignored him, gave him ‘dirty looks’ and refused to hand him work for checking.
He described an incident that allegedly became known as ‘shingate’ in the office. He told the tribunal another researcher, Lee Parkin, tripped him up in the office, and that a colleague who was in the office at the time, Debbie Collins, was ‘trying not to laugh’.
Mr Parkin allegedly told Mr Lumb he had ‘walked into my foot’. In his evidence to the tribunal, Mr Parkin said it had been an accident and that his colleague had clipped him and it had made him ‘fall forward slightly’.
But the employment tribunal said Mr Parkin’s evidence was ‘unconvincing’ and agreed with Mr Lumb that he had been assaulted and that Ms Collins had laughed at him.
The married father, who spent two-and-a-half years at the gun vetting unit, told the M.E.N: “It’s left my life completely upside down. I’ve lost my house. I had to move out because I couldn’t pay the mortgage and I haven’t been able to work since. It’s been wholly horrendous.”
A GMP spokesperson said: “We respect the findings of the tribunal and we regret any detriment to which Mr Lumb’s personal and professional life may have suffered as a result of the circumstances outlined in the hearing.
“Much of what was heard during proceedings concerns staff who are not now in our Firearms and Explosives Licensing Unit, and we are totally focused on working robustly to ensure adequate checks are thoroughly conducted before applications are approved and licenses are issued.
A ‘remedy hearing’ has been scheduled for January to work out compensation GMP must pay Mr Lumb.
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