A NATIONAL Car Test (NCT) inspector was dismissed after he passed his own vehicles in NCT tests three times.

Andrew Barron had his contract terminated in October 2013 after he tested his car at a Mullingar test centre on the same day it failed for having a faulty rear bulb.

Mr Barron, who worked as an NCT car tester for almost 15 years, is not claiming unfair dismissal, but wishes to have his job reinstated.

After his car failed a test at lunchtime on February 6, 2013, the Employment Appeals Tribunal heard yesterday that Mr Barron replaced the bulb and returned to the centre that evening to test and pass his own vehicle.

At an investigatory meeting on October 3, Mr Barron claimed the offence was a once-off and that he had not passed his own vehicle before.

However, it later emerged that Mr Barron had in fact passed his own vehicles on two previous occasions, first in 2009 and again in 2011.

HR manager at Applus Car Testing Service Ltd, trading as the NCT, Elaine Bird, told the tribunal that employees are not permitted to test their own vehicles or the vehicles of family members or friends.

The company’s code of ethics also states that staff are forbidden from repairing such vehicles which are due to be tested, Ms Bird said.

At the October 3 meeting, Mr Barron claimed: “I did it without thinking, on no account did I think of the code of ethics.”

He told management: “I apologise to you and the company. My job is my livelihood. Do anything else, but don’t take my job.”

At a disciplinary meeting on October 16, regional manager Jimmy McHolmes informed Mr Barron that he was terminating his contract for repeatedly breaching the code of ethics.

He told the tribunal: “The key part of our business is the integrity and trust we give to the inspectors. We’re not standing over their shoulder and watching what they do. We explain to them the code of ethics and what they can’t do.

“It’s been hammered in for years and years, that of all the things you can’t stand over, because of the contract we have from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the audits by the AA and PricewaterhouseCoopers, this is just not acceptable.”

The tribunal continues.

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