A tribunal has ruled a plumber was not unfairly dismissed by his former employer and that he broke the law by working during the Covid-19 shutdown.

Robert Craine was fired by Eclipse Heating and Plumbing Ltd for gross misconduct after a number of serious issues came to light.

Mr Craine had been employed for nearly 20 years by Douglas-based EHP, a business run by Colin Igglesden and he was the only employee.

The relationship had been long and happy until more recent times. The extent of Mr Igglesden’s trust in Mr Craine was such that Mr Craine had keys to his home, access to his computer and access to his boat.

Mr Igglesden had also set up a merchant access agreement with suppliers involving a £1,000 deposit to enable Mr Craine to get parts and supplies while he was absent and ill in hospital in September 2019.

The tribunal report said: ’The breakdown in the relationship came to a head during the first part of the shutdown because of Covid-19.

’On a date which was somewhat uncertain but which the tribunal accept was late March 2020, the complainant was stopped by the police for driving the respondent’s van at a time when this was illegal because of the shutdown in the construction industry.

’Mr Craine was then warned to stay at home but continued not to do so.’

He admitted under questioning during the tribunal that he working on a job at flats on Douglas Head and he ’continued to do so in defiance of the shutdown’.

Mr Igglesden discovered that Mr Craine had been working for a woman on his own account at a higher rate of pay and not accounting to him. The woman owns a large number of properties and had been providing the business with a flow of work.

Since Mr Igglesden dismissed Mr Craine for gross misconduct, Mr Craine admitted that he has continued to work for this woman ’in effect taking over a valuable customer without any payment for goodwill that had belonged to Mr Igglesden’s company’.

The tribunal also heard he had diverted invoices to his address without Mr Igglesden’s consent, had used his employers tools and equipment for his own business and had ordered and used materials paid for and belonging to EHP.

The report added that ’the trust that Mr Igglesden had placed in Mr Craine had become misplaced and abused. From about September 2019 and certainly into March and probably April 2020, Mr Craine had abused that trust ’increasingly’.

However, as Mr Craine was not provided with written terms and conditions of employment, a breach of the Employment Act 2006, Mr Craine was awarded £700.