Something dodgy going on, opinions needed.....

[ian505050]

Sorry this is a bit long but its worth a read.

My dad who is semi retired drives gritter lorries for a company most evenings doing private businesses car parks ect....

Earlier in the week he was called into the office and asked what happened when he gritted a supermarket car park a few days earlier. He was unsure what they were getting at and it was left until the next day when they called him in the office again.

This time they showed him video footage of a gritter lorry driving in and out of a huge supermarket car park that he had gritted earlier in the week. The footage showed that the gritter lorry did not grit the car park and simply drove in and drove out. It takes 15 minutes to grit the car park and the lorry in the footage was in the car park 20 seconds.

At this point my dad was bewildered as he definitely gritted the car park, in fact he gritted it more than normal as it was very icy. BUT................... the footage was date stamped and matched the time he was gritting the car park.

His bosses at this point thought he was a twat and were obviously considering sacking him like any decent employer would.

He went away had a think about what was just said to him and decided to tell the boss of the gritter company that the footage had to be doctored/fake. His boss obviously thought my dad was a twat again and struggled to believe that the footage was fake.

At this point my dad realized that the truck has a tracker fitted and all the gritter companies vehicles are slightly different.

The gritter company boss contacted the tracking company who confirmed that the lorry spent 25 minutes gritting at the supermarket obviously contradicting the footage supplied by the supermarket. My dad then studied the footage a few times and noticed that the gritting lorry in the video was not the one he used on the night as the orange lights on the roof were layed out differently, it was in fact a different lorry that his gritting company own that was not in use on the night.

Now this is the interesting part, the supermarket has made the complaint that the car park was not gritted and someone fell on the ice and was seriously injured, obviously were there is blame there is a claim.

My dad is a bit of an old fart and not the most healthy guy and this seems to have stressed him out a bit. Obviously the worry of getting the sack, stress of thinking he was going mad.


What does BCF think he should do at this stage? I can only think that someone is trying to commit insurance fraud at the supermarket to make a claim and put money in there friends pocket or that the supermarket is deflecting the blame to the gritting company by having a fake footage sat on a shelf that they put a fake date stamp on.

Anyway, my dad was very close to being sacked and potentially been prosecuted for negligence.

He will more the likely get of it in time but what should we do at this point.

Many thanks Ian

[Hetzer]

Tell your old man to tell his boss they either sort it out (and compo him for the stress of false accusations) or he'll bring the police into it (may work, often does).
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Pete.]

The tracker never lies. If it says he was there for 25 mins then he was and this is enough to exonerate him.

It's unlikely someone has concoted the video for fraud purposes, but it isn't impossible. Clearly the lorry in the footage wasn't his lorry so they haven't doctored HIS footage. Most likely cause is that the date or timestamp for the footage is not set correctly.

There's an easy way to find out. Was the lorry one from the same company? If so, identify it by the lights on the roof and go through the datatracker logs to see what days it visited that site and for how long.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[ScaredyCat]

[ian505050]

[ian505050]

[CarlosCBR]

I'd be telling your dad not to fret too much over it. He can/has proved its not his lorry on the footage so he should be fine.

Maybe the supermarket is cutting costs and is looking for an easy way out of the contract without having to pay?
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[Pete.]

[fatpies]

Contact the union if you have one, maybe ACAS if you think it is appropriate.

Second lawyer up.
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"It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one"

[waffles]

Does you dad have a copy of the tracking data from that night? If not, would he be able to get a copy?

From his point of view he can prove that the gritter he was driving spent time in the carpark which goes against the evidence provided by the supermarket. There shouldn't be any way that he could be held accountable for someone slipping on ice in that carpark and he did the job properly. The fact that his boss now knows that his gritter truck was there for 25 minutes only strengthens his case so he should be fine.

Why would the supermarket provide "false" footage though? They would be covered by insurance for any injuries sustained so wouldn't need to lump the blame onto someone else. This whole situation is really really weird!
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Theory test - 19/8/09, CBT - 11/10/09, MOD 1 - 16/8/10, MOD 2 - 27/10/10
Past rides Yamaha XT125X, Triumph TT600, Honda XR250
Current rides Suzuki GSXR 600, Honda MSX125

[Pete.]

Don't underestimate the level of built-in natural deviousness of your average supermarket manager. Many of them are career snakes and professional sneaky bastards.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[waffles]

Maybe I am just too trusting of people!
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Theory test - 19/8/09, CBT - 11/10/09, MOD 1 - 16/8/10, MOD 2 - 27/10/10
Past rides Yamaha XT125X, Triumph TT600, Honda XR250
Current rides Suzuki GSXR 600, Honda MSX125

[scorps]

I would say supermarket wants to lay the blame on the gritters and it is very easy to doctor video, unfortunately a tracker would not have been taken into consideration. I would imagine the griiting company are loathe to lose a contract with the supermarket so union or ACAS most definately. Where I used to work had several so called blame issues which were discounted after we produced tracker information.
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Do not presume that I am male.

[ScaredyCat]

How about:

a) Clock is wrong on their recording kit.
b) Your dad goes and grits the car park for 20 mins then leaves.
c) 2nd truck from gritting co turns up to grit car park, realises it's already been done, leaves.
d) supermarket supplies footage of 2nd truck to avoid ambulance chasing lawyers.

Andy
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Honda CBF125 ➝ NC700X
Honda CBF125 ↳ Speed Triple

[D O G]

Your pops needs to chill - the company knows it wasn't him on the video, it's now up to the company's management to resolve it with the supermarket.

[krarkol]

Or they didn't put the clock back/forward an hour and the gritter came after and realised it had been gritted and left?

I doubt it's an insurance thing but more publicity. It will look bad on the supermarket if someone was seriously injured. If they can say the gritter contractor didn't do their job properly to the papers then the supermarket isn't in jeopardy and the managers not in deep shit.

If I was your dad I'd actually get as much evidence as I can and go court and claim damages for emotional distress.
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Bandit 600 - deaded

[Lord Percy]

If someone slipped on ice and they were trying to blame the grit company, then it's DEFINITELY deviousness on behalf of the supermarket manager. SPECIALLY since a video was put forward that suggested, perchance, that on that day of aaaaall the days, the gritter didn't do his job properly, AND your dad has evidence to show he actually did do his job.

I guess it depends on your dad's nature. I mean, some people really would go full force with trying to get revenge on the supermarket management, but some people are content with letting things lie, since no fuss has been caused.

Definite chance to stir things up with the supermarket though.

[MattEMulsion]

Have you established whose the gritter truck is that appears on the video?
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Yamaha YZF-R6

[shereen]

[flat spot]

[stinkwheel]

If he is a member of a union, get them involved right now.

If they want a further meeting he should insist it is witnessed and minuted (anyone from the workplace will do, preferrably someone he gets on well with) and minuted. It's easy to fling verbal accusations about in a one-on-one situation. It's the backbone of a constructive dismissal hearing if it's on paper.

If he is not a mamber of a union, the citizens advice will happily advise him on the best course of action.

If he really wants to fuck them up, he should go off with stress right now.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[thx1138]

I think the ACAS help line, is open until 8pm weekdays, for free confidential employment advice.

08457 47 47 47

[Benno]

https://adsentertainmentblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/secure-beneath-watchful-eyes.jpg?w=538

CCTV is for your own safety, they said...
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I'm autistic. That means I'm smarter than you.

[unitynotsocri...]

they cant match the video across the time date without it being detected asmessed about with or recoded,so is inadmissible .looks like a nice little setup for some poor granny ,who's grandsons had a gritter truck who had probably drove through the car park.OR someone with a truck like yours drove through the car park,which you already knowMaybe that truck driver did someone a favour.They may have just stopped at the first bus stop,like shrinks with their DSM manuals on mental health......and just rewound the tape to the day of the COMPENSATION CLAIM...scumbags maybe////?...

for that level of deception the claim maybe a big one ,or a smaller one done by a crew who do this stuff all day,usually with spare number plates,
trust no one at work...in fact test a few if they seem to be letting you down
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