Swindon Greyhound whistleblower awarded £17k

AFORMER greyhound track employee has won thousands in compensation after being sacked for whistleblowing and raising concerns about possible race-fixing and welfare of the dogs.

Ex-deputy racing manager Kiaran O’Brien, at Abbey Stadium in Swindon, said concerns he had raised about potential race-fixing and the welfare of greyhounds led to his dismissal from the company.

A tribunal has now ordered Torquay United owners Gaming International Limited, who manage the Blunsdon dog racing track, to pay compensation of almost £17,000 to Mr O’Brien.

The judge upheld a claim that Mr O’Brien was sacked from the company’s Swindon Greyhound racing track for whistleblowing.

Gaming International argued that Mr O’Brien lost the job he had for over a year in July 2020 because of an ongoing personal dispute between him and the track’s racing manager Clive Oseman – and not as a result of his whistleblowing.

In addition to his facing office duties Mr O’Brien was the voluntary welfare officer for the track as part of the GBGB’s commitment to the welfare of dogs at Swindon.

An employment tribunal dismissed Mr O’Brien’s case of “automatically unfair dismissal for making a protected disclosure”. However, Mr O’Brien’s claims of “detriment at work for making a protected disclosure” were upheld in the tribunal – ruling he should be paid £16,867.07 in compensation.

During the tribunal, which issued its findings earlier this month following a hearing in Bristol in March, Mr O’Brien stated that on June 10, 2020, he had raised concerns over a staff member’s erratic driving of the mechanical hare which he alleged was to favour a local trainer with a family link to them.

A separate issue raised by Mr O’Brien on June 13 involved concerns he had over the welfare of a dog he felt should not be racing.

These were overruled by Oseman despite his multiple protestations and consequently, the dog in question, Newinn Buddy, ran in a race and crashed into two other greyhounds, severely injuring one of them.

The injured dog later had to have a leg amputated.

Both incidents were shown to have caused tension between Mr O’Brien and Mr Oseman, with the latter leading to heated argument between the two in the steward’s box following the event. Both parties wrote complaints to general manager Peter Geeves, with whom Mr O’Brien had also previously shared his frequent concerns.

After intervention from Geeves and Steven Hayward, the group’s finance director, the decision was made to dismiss Mr O’Brien.

Judge Eoin Fowell, who heard the case, found Mr O’Brien’s story to be “detailed, coherent and plausible” – whilst Gaming International’s evidence “seemed to gloss over these concerns”.

Judge Eoin Fowell said: “He was expected to carry on as normal despite being roundly abused by his manager”.

He later concluded that Mr O’Brien had suffered several detriments during his employment because of his whistleblowing but he said that he could not conclude that Mr O’Brien was sacked because of the disclosures.

Gaming International and the Greyhound Board of Great Britain have been approached for comment.