A committee has heard that whistle-blowers in the island need more support to help them understand the legal process.

The Tynwald committee on whistle-blowing heard from Robert Sutton, who recently won damages of nearly £600,000 from his former employers Creechurch Capital Ltd.

During the sitting, chaired by Onchan MHK Julie Edge, Mr Sutton outlined the difficulties in raising issues in a small company compared with government, but also the financial cost of seeking legal advice during his tribunal.

He told the committee that during the course of the tribunal hearings, with all other work attached, his legal bill had topped £100,000.

Mr Sutton said: ’By the time I got the verdict saying "yes we think you are a whistle-blower", I owed my lawyer over £100,000. I don’t know a way around that but it is very difficult to even get to that point.

’For me, you really need legal support and it needs to be at a price that’s plausible. I have only been able to get through what I have because I don’t have children. I would not have been able to take the risk I took if I had someone dependent on me.

’I had to sign my house over as collateral to my lawyer because I just didn’t have any money and he was obviously concerned about being paid while we were miles away from winning.’

Mr Sutton said that a simple service offering guidance would assist people significantly with the process as it would allow claimants to understand what they can apply to claim for and what they could be entitled to.

Describing parts of winning his case ’with a lot of luck’ Mr Sutton told the committee that a friend’s father who had worked as an HR director explained to him ’in about 10 minutes’ how to respond when presenting his case.

He also praised the work of the Manx Industrial Relations, but added: ’I think like the Financial Services Authority, they can’t get stuck in to help, they can only offer advice.

’When you’ve got no idea what you’re doing and you’re on your own, you need instructions and a bit more assistance. A helpline would be really good, with someone who knows employment law.’

Mr Sutton said that he never felt like a whistle-blower when he was making people aware of the issues he raised at Creechurch. He thought he was ’just doing my job’ and reporting an issue that ’I knew wasn’t right’.

He also told the committee that raising concerns can be problematic and people can be labelled as a troublemaker,’you’re not a whistle blower until someone has decided you are, until then you’re just a person complaining,’ Mr Sutton explained.