A MAN who accused Oxford-based logistic company Unipart of deliberate fraudulent accounting has lost his case for unfair dismissal – after the judge called his account “fabricated”.

Darren Oakley, left, from Solihull, West Midlands, claimed unfair dismissal following his departure from the company after he made allegations that he had evidence of systematic false accounting by it.

After refusing to hand over the evidence to the firm and allegedly asking for a settlement worth “several times his salary”, he was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct in late 2010. The sacking was upheld at a company appeal early this year.

Employment judge David Kearsley also dismissed his claims, as well as ruling that the tribunal did not have jurisdiction to rule on a claim for detriment due to actions taken against Oakley, because of the length of time it had taken him to bring his claim.

They also dismissed a claim that his dismissal represented a breach of contract by Unipart.

Mr Oakley, 41, joined the company as a service delivery manager in 2007 and was part of a major restructuring in mid 2010.

It was shortly after he was told he had been successful in the restructuring and would keep his job that he made the allegations that he had evidence of fraud.

Giving evidence to the employment tribunal in Birmingham on Monday, Angela Dickson, a human resources consultant at Unipart, said she had had numerous meetings with Mr Oakley, during which he had made veiled threats to expose information to customers unless he received a settlement.

“It was my opinion that this was a misunderstanding,” she said. “I do not believe he had evidence of false accounting. When I met him to discuss the allegations he refused to show me the evidence several times, he was antagonistic towards us by the end of the meetings, he told me there was an easy way and a hard way to do this, and we had chosen the hard way.”

Mr Oakley, who represented himself at the tribunal, said he had never asked for a financial settlement and accused those who gave evidence against him, and the firm in general, of conspiring against him.

“I believe the whole investigation process was a complete sham,” he said. “I never said I wanted a financial settlement and I never said I wanted to leave.”

Dismissing the claim on Wednesday, Judge Kearsley said: “We have decided that the claimant’s account of the events is inherently implausible and fabricated.

“It was fatal to the claim that the disclosure was not made in good faith, but in fact for personal gain. He truly believed he had found evidence of fraud, but because of the way he made the claims it was not protected.”

He referred the case to the county courts after awarding costs to Unipart, saying the amount, more than £10,000, was more than his jurisdiction covered.