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A federal tribunal has upheld the firing of a Canada Revenue Agency employee who used the tax department’s computer database — and her identity card — to leverage a better price on a real estate deal.

Micheline Bétournay was terminated from the tax agency in October 2015 based on an internal investigation that found she tried to “intimidate” a home seller during a heated tête-à-tête inside a bathroom.

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The internal report said that Bétournay, during negotiations to buy a home in Laval, Que., met with seller Hugo Girard-Beauchamp, the owner of a home finance company. He had foreclosed on the home and listed it for sale at $279,000. Bétourney had struck a deal to buy it for $260,000, pending an inspection.

The home inspection, however, uncovered a series of problems with the house and Bétournay wanted the agreed-upon sale price dropped to $220,000.

Photo by Pierre Obendrauf / Postmedia

At a meeting in late January 2015 inside the home, Girard-Beauchamp told her he could accept nothing less than $250,000.