Leaked Vertex papers cost manager his job

By Nick Stride

Friday 25th June 2004

A Vertex Pacific account manager identified only as "Jimmy" downloaded sensitive company information leaked last year to the National Business Review from the PC of the managing director's personal assistant.

Jimmy emailed the documents to Vertex sales and marketing manager Kevin Beasley, who earlier this month lost an unjustifiable dismissal case against the company.

The Employment Relations Authority declined Beasley's claim for lost wages, compensation for stress and humiliation, and his legal expenses.

The documents were mailed anonymously to NBR and Shareholders Association chairman Bruce Sheppard in July last year.

Asked to verify they were genuine, managing director Paddy Boyle at first declined to comment, then said they had been illegally obtained and then that some but not all of the data were incorrect.

Boyle called in accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers to investigate the source of the leak. PWC established that Jimmy had obtained information from Boyle's PA's PC and that he had tried to access the computer mailboxes of Beasley and another staff member.

Beasley, who was out of town, was asked to provide his laptop for examination but there was some delay before he complied.

PWC found the laptop contained a number of confidential files sent by Jimmy.

Beasley maintained he hadn't read them and was unaware of their contents, but had saved them to read at some other time.

Eric Kjestrup, general manager of Vertex's food tray division, was unconvinced, concluding Beasley did know what was in the files and had failed to alert Vertex.

Vertex argued this failure amounted to "conduct that deeply impaired or was destructive of basic confidence and trust" and constituted serious misconduct.

Authority member James Wilson ruled Beasley's dismissal was justified and that he did not have a personal grievance against Vertex.

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