Cash in hand
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 2:49 am
Raises an interesting point doesn't it? The tests for drugs these days can give instant positive result for coke, speed, meth, cannabis. But they are totally useless at determining the detail. Around here they have random driving drug tests, if you smoke one joint on Sunday, they can find traces the following Saturday. Stoned driving? Not really.A bus driver sacked after testing positive for cocaine has won a substantial pay out by proving the drug came from bank notes handed over by passengers.
Alan Bailes was fired by First Bus after 22 years of employment when he failed a saliva test – despite insisting he has never taken drugs. His only explanation was that the trace of the Class A drug had come from the hundreds of pounds in cash he handled that day. Alan Bailes (left) has won a five-figure payout from First Bus after he proved that a saliva test which got him sacked for taking drugs was incorrect. M
It is thought up to 88 per cent of bank notes in the UK carry traces of illegal drugs.
After a two-and-a-half year legal battle, Mr Bailes, 58, has won a five-figure sum from First Bus, which fired him for ‘gross misconduct’ in June 2012. To clear his name, the grandfather-of-three spent £440 on a more accurate hair follicle test through his GP – which proved he had not had drugs in his system for at least 90 days. Despite this First Bus refused to reinstate him. It must now pay out after its appeal against a court ruling of unfair dismissal failed.
Mr Bailes and his wife, Rita, had to borrow money from friends and family to cover mortgage payments while they took the company to an employment tribunal, which ruled he was wrongly dismissed and condemned First Bus’s ‘flawed investigation’. Last night Mr Bailes said: ‘We’ve been left feeling stressed, incredibly worried and upset, all for something I didn’t do. ‘I’m sure First Bus don’t like the fact that the little man took them on and beat them… But I was accused of doing something I knew I hadn’t done and I was determined to fight back.’
Mr Bailes, from Bristol, was asked by First Bus to take a saliva test in May 2012 after an anonymous complaint that he had driven under the influence of cannabis. He had not washed his hands before the test and had eaten his sandwiches after counting the cash, increasing the likelihood of the drug being transferred to his mouth. Mr Bailes said: ‘I hadn’t smoked cigarettes for 16 years and I have never taken drugs in my life. I took the test and ten days later it came back with cocaine. I couldn’t believe it.’
Following his dismissal, Mr Bailes’s family found a Daily Mail article about traces of illegal drugs on bank notes. During the tribunal an expert witness presented evidence that the positive result was down to ‘sample contamination’ from the money Mr Bailes handled.
