A WEYMOUTH Land Registry worker caught on film at the gym while claiming work-based injuries has been branded ‘dishonest’ by a judge who dismissed her claim for unfair dismissal.

Jane Brooke, of Abbotsbury Road, Weymouth, was secretly filmed at the Weymouth swimming pool gym after beginning legal proceedings for repetitive strain injury at work.

She was sacked for gross misconduct and an employment tribunal has now dismissed her claim for unfair dismissal with a judge ruling her bosses faced ‘uncontroversial evidence’ that she had been guilty of ‘serious dishonesty’.

Ms Brooke had stopped using the computer and was spending 85 per cent of her full-time job on health and safety and union duties when she and four colleagues who had started legal action were put under secret video surveillance by Land Registry bosses at a cost of £41,508.

After being dismissed, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) funded a claim by Ms Brooke for unfair dismissal.

A joint claim for union victimisation was also made by Ms Brooke alongside fellow former Land Registry worker Suzanne Pymn.

That claim was also dismissed by tribunal Judge John Coles.

Judge Coles found Ms Brooke’s behaviour was inconsistent with her alleged injury and said Christine Peadon, then the Land Registry’s programme manager, was justified in sacking her after seeing the footage.

He said: “Mrs Peadon was entitled to form the conclusion that this evidence established serious dishonesty on the part of Ms Brooke.”

He added: “This not only breached the duty of trust and confidence to which the respondent was entitled from Ms Brooke but also amounted to serious misconduct justifying summary dismissal.”

Union solicitors were informed of the surveillance in October 2008 and in December they withdrew the personal injury proceedings and agreed to pay £65,000 of the Land Registry’s costs incurred in planning to defend the action.

Ms Brooke’s representatives claimed the filming infringed her right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights.

At the tribunal in Southampton Judge Coles had said ‘that’s not cricket’ after seeing that Ms Brooke and other gym members were secretly filmed.

In his judgement Judge Coles said covert surveillance was not uncommon where bosses suspect ‘fabrication or exaggeration of clinical symptoms’.

Judge Coles said: “It is debatable whether the video surveillance of Ms Brooke in the gym occurred in a private place. Mr Brooke was not in a place where she believed that other people were not able to observe her activities and accordingly it was not a situation in which dignity or decency was infringed.”

Mrs Brooke was filmed for 68 hours. The video showed her on a cross trainer, stepper and running machine. She said the exercises did not involve her injured right arm.

In his judgement Judge Coles added: “Whilst the person carrying out the surveillance did not have specific permission to be there, and whilst the other persons there would have had to be members or staff of the gym, the location could properly, in the tribunal’s judgement, not be described as an area where Ms Brooke would have expected personal privacy.”

31 years' service

JANE Brooke worked at the Land Registry for 31 years until she was sacked in 2009 After hearing about the judgement Ms Brooke said: “I’m meeting with my legal team to review the situation and decide on the next steps.”

She added: “The PCS and myself are surprised and disappointed at the ruling from the tribunal.

“We fought an honest case and I am still troubled by the injury I incurred.

“The PCS and I are now concerned that the Land Registry and other public service bodies will take this ruling as a signal to dismiss other employees.

“I am still an active officer in the PCS and my members are voicing strong concerns over this matter and are fearful of what the future now holds for them.”