A Hove primary school teacher faces financial ruin after a judge found against him in a four-year fight over a reference that effectively ended his 30-year career.
Brian Tomlins, 60, of Hogarth Road, Hove, was ordered to pay £45,000 in legal costs after losing a claim against Brighton and Hove City Council.
The interim costs order – a downpayment on a potential bill for £73,000 – was made by Judge Simon Coltart after he gave his judgment in the case at Brighton County Court.
He found that Janis Taylor, the former head of West Hove Junior School, now Hove Junior School, was “under a duty” to give the career-ending reference.
He said: “A reference of this sort has to be fair to the recipient and the subject.”
The judge added that her views were “honestly held on reasonable grounds” and supported by two colleagues, including deputy head Teresa Rawlings, and an external consultant.
Mr Tomlins was a long-serving teacher at the school, in Portland Road, Hove, and had spent 20 years as the science co-ordinator.
He submitted evidence – ten years of test results – showing better scores in science than maths and English in support of his case that his reference did not accurately reflect his teaching ability.
And he included an Ofsted report which praised science teaching at the school.
Mr Tomlins said that when Mrs Taylor became head teacher at the school in 2007 she wanted to cut costs and as a result three staff were made redundant.
He said that he was vulnerable as an older, experienced and senior teacher because he was paid more than younger junior colleagues.
He believed that it was for this reason that he was “performance managed” under capability procedures. He did not accept some of the assessments of his teaching.
At his employment tribunal, he said, it was accepted that there was a personality clash between himself and Mrs Taylor. But he also said that Mrs Taylor had doctored his teaching assessments and misled the tribunal.
He added that he was given an ordinary notice of dismissal by the school’s governors. But a council panel had acted beyond its powers in changing the reason to gross misconduct. This was untrue and unfair.
The judge said that he was unable to “look behind” the findings of the employment tribunal which found that his dismissal was fair.
Mr Tomlins said that part of the reason he ran out of time for an appeal was because the council asked Sussex Police to arrest him and they did.
He’s annoyed that he didn’t get a good reference because he was sacked?! Am I missing something? I am glad he won’t be teaching my children
Yes you are missing something Katie, read the article… This was a gross miscarriage of justice. My heart breaks for the man.
I have read the article and it still baffles me why he would expect to receive a good reference from an employer he had been sacked by.
Glad he has to foot the bill. How did this case ever get in front of a judge? What a waste of everyone’s time. You can’t expect a decent reference if you’re sacked for gross misconduct!
The council falsified the gross misconduct reason. That was never the original reason given by the school. The council are as capable of dishonesty and corruption as anyone else which is why there is an ongoing fraud investigation against its former head of housing involving £25 million of Brighton council tax payers’ money