A trade paper for driving instructors has publicly apologised to
driving examiner it accused of "playing the system" by deliberately
failing candidates who should have passed their tests and paid him
£30,000 in libel damages.
Mr Justice Eady was told that the
examiner, Peter Murray, of Morden, Surrey, was put through a living
hell after a magazine article accused him of dishonesty and distorting
driving test pass rates.
He sued over the allegations made in the
April 2005 issue of MSA Newslink, an influential industry journal
circulated throughout the world of driving instruction.
Mr Murray
was dismissed as a driving examiner by the Driving Standards Agency
(DSA) in December 2003 over claims that he had not passed enough test
candidates.
The Civil Service Appeal Board later ruled the
dismissal was "unfair" and recommended he be reinstated. When that was
not done, Mr Murray took the DSA to an employment tribunal and the
proceedings were eventually settled with the assistance of ACAS.
More
than 5,000 copies were circulated to the nation's 219 driving test
centres and all members of the association, and Mr Murray was left
devastated.
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