Appeal lost by postman (From Gazette & Herald)

Appeal lost by postman

A RYEDALE postman who claimed he was the victim of a "wide-ranging conspiracy" has tasted final defeat in a four-year campaign to prove he was unfairly dismissed.

Gary McCann, 36, claimed he was on the receiving end of "completely bogus, unwarranted and scurrilous" harassment claims by colleagues at the Royal Mail depot in Malton, and it was that which led to his sacking in December 2000.

But his campaign for compensation from the Royal Mail Group plc hit the buffers at London's Appeal Court when top judge, Lord Justice Wall observed: "The simple facts of the case stand out."

He said that in October 2000 Mr McCann, from Malton, had pleaded guilty to fraudulent evasion of duty after being caught coming through Hull Docks with a quantity of tobacco and was jailed for three months.

He added that the Leeds Employment Tribunal, which heard his unfair dismissal claim in January last year, had been fully entitled to conclude the real reason for his dismissal was the conviction and his employers' loss of "trust and confidence" in him.

The judge recognised that Mr McCann and his father, Stewart McCann, who has represented him throughout his marathon fight for compensation, "felt passionately" that an injustice had been done.

But the employment tribunal had been in "no doubt whatsoever" that there had been no conspiracy to dismiss Mr McCann and also found there was "not one shred of evidence" to support his claim that he had been the victim of a plot by senior and junior Royal Mail managers at the Malton office, and possibly even by Customs officers, to get rid of him. In its decision, the tribunal had accepted that the atmosphere in the Malton office was "most unpleasant", but said Mr McCann's unfair dismissal claim had been "misconceived from the start".

As a result of what Mr McCann said were the "bogus" harassment accusations made against him in 1999, the court heard he was compulsorily transferred to the York branch. However he went off sick suffering from stress and did not work for the Royal Mail again before his dismissal on December 7, 2000.

Since the employment tribunal dismissed his case, Mr McCann has twice tried, without success, to persuade the Employment Appeals Tribunal to overturn the ruling. However, refusing him permission to appeal this week, Lord Justice Wall told the Appeal Court: "It is high time that these long-standing proceedings were brought to an end, and my decision does that."

Outside court Mr McCann said: "I'm absolutely devastated. There's no justice, is there?"

A Post Office spokesman said it did not comment on court cases.

Updated: 10:07 Monday, February 07, 2005