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Healthcare Locums scandal turns dirty

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26th Apr 2012
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The former chairman of Healthcare Locums (HCL) Alan Walker has denied “sexual impropriety” with dismissed chief executive Kate Bleasdale amid allegations of accounting irregularities at the company.

Bleasdale, who is representing herself at the London Employment Tribunal, is suing Walker - and the HCL board members - for sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal.

The medical staffing firm sacked her in January 2011 after “accounting irregularities” came to light.

Bleasdale, who left nursing to build up a multi-million pound business, cross-examined Walker yesterday (25 April) in the third week of her £12m legal action against HCL and a number of former colleagues.

She described how her former chairman became increasingly hostile towards her after behaving inappropriately at a meeting in a London bar. Bleasdale accused Walker of touching her right breast twice and her leg during the August 2010 meeting.

Walker said the claim was "completely untrue". According to The Telegraph Walker said: "I am extremely unhappy and disappointed at the turn of events. I am distressed for my wife and family that I have been dragged through the press for sexual impropriety where none exists. I feel utterly betrayed by everything that has happened."

The former nurse was suspended and dismissed from the company in March 2011 after serious discrepancies with the firm’s accounts threatened its reputation.

The tribunal heard earlier in the week from non-executive director David Henderson, who upheld Bleasdale’s dismissal, how she should have considered resigning after the discovery of serious problems with the accounts.

Bleasdale defended her actions following a meeting in December 2010, at which she said the accountants had described the accounts as “as clear as mud”.

According to Recruiter Bleasdale told the tribunal: “The action I took was to ask the accountants to go away and investigate, to get rid of the mud, so we could see what was happening to the accounts.”

Henderson said he saw clear evidence of the seriousness of the situation facing the company, citing “a series of emails that all pointed to a black hole” in the accounts.

Last week at the tribunal Bleasdale claimed HCL’s former FD Diane Jarvis had told the board in a March 2010 meeting that she had “lost her accounting ethics”.

However former deputy chairman Alastair Liddell said: “I don’t remember her saying that, and I would have remembered it.” Liddell added that he had not heard Jarvis say that she instructed Barry Pactor, then MD in HCL’s international division, to doctor an email relating to three placements in the Middle East.

Following the discovery of the email by HCL’s auditors BDO, Walker asked Jarvis to carry out an investigation. Liddell said that rather than sending a team from BDO to investigate the email, the board decided to change its accounting policy so that revenue from permanent placements was only recognised in the accounts when the candidate started work.

Bleasdale said the change in accounting policy amounted to a cover-up.

The tribunal continues.

In a previous case Bleasdale sued directors from her first company Match Group for sexual discrimination claiming she was sacked for no good reason. The company settled out of court for £2.2m in 2002.

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By Brend201
26th Apr 2012 13:41

I am not clear how Ms Bleasdale could have "left nursing to build up the multi-million pound HCL business" when she also won a large settlement from "her first company" in 2002.

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Shorty
By Shorty
03rd May 2012 11:03

Future jobs

Wonder what she puts on her CV?

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