Former Apprentice star loses BBC tribunal after accepting freebies

A BBC sports reporter and former Apprentice candidate who was sacked after accepting thousands of pounds worth of freebies has lost his claim of unfair dismissal.

Ian Stringer was fired by Sir Alan Sugar after three tasks in 2008 – then sacked for real by BBC Sport bosses 14 years later after accepting fitness watches, turmeric shots and loans of high performance cars in exchange for ‘shout outs’ online.

BBC editorial guidelines prevent staff from giving ‘undue prominence’ to particular products or services and ban workers from accepting gifts or hospitality from anyone who ‘might believe it will give them a business advantage’.

But an employment tribunal found Mr Stringer used his BBC email address, his job with the broadcaster and his tens of thousands of social media followers to claim goodies in exchange for promoting them on his social media.

Mr Stringer, who became the Leicester City correspondent prior to his sacking in 2022, claimed he had been forced out after whistleblowing on an alleged breach of Covid regulations within the BBC the year before. 

He said he was never told off for tweeting about products until the day he was brought in to be suspended. 

He claimed his line manager Kamlesh Purohit had told a colleague to ‘come in to present a show’ despite being in contact with someone who had Covid, and that Mr Purohit was ‘angry’ and sought retribution against the whistleblower,

The tribunal, however, found that concerns about his social media usage had been raised by another member of staff, rather than by Mr Purohit, who nevertheless recommended that Mr Stringer’s promotional tweets be escalated.

The journalist also claimed he was ‘treated inconsistently’ with other BBC sports stars like Gary Lineker – who is a freelancer rather than a direct employee – but the tribunal found his circumstances were ‘not comparable’ to those of the footballer.

The Leicester employment tribunal heard whilst Mr Stringer’s official employment with the broadcaster began in November, 2007.

In 2008, Mr Stringer appeared on BBC’s The Apprentice but he was sacked by Lord Alan Sugar after a three-week stint on the show. His appearance at the time had prompted controversy because of his existing BBC links.

Upon joining the broadcaster, he was told via his contract to familiarise himself with BBC’s Editorial Guidelines which included sections on conflicts of interest.

‘People working for the BBC must not accept gifts or hospitality from anyone who might believe it will give them a business advantage,’ one section said.

‘We must not give the impression that we are endorsing a commercial product or service when linking to a commercial platform.’

Mr Stringer was informed that staff should not accept goods, discounts, services, cash, loans, or entertainment from organisations or people with whom they might have dealings on the BBC’s behalf.

During his tenure, he was invited to take part in training schemes which reinforced these rules but the tribunal said he ‘did not appear to have taken training particularly seriously’.

Employment Judge Kimbra Welch said he had previously said when completing training models you have to ‘just click through and get it done’ to ‘get management off his back’. 

Mr Stringer was asked by his line manager to run from Leicester to Wembley Stadium in honour of a fan who had cycled the same route many years before to watch a football match.

While it was agreed that BBC Leicester would provide some coverage of the run, ‘parameters’ were set on what could and could not be mentioned.

The journalist was told he should not use his work Twitter accounts to post about the journey and was asked to ‘carefully’ read the advice signed off by Editorial Policy.

He was told he could get as many ‘freebies’ as he wanted, provided he used his own social media account. Mr Stringer obtained several free items.

These included a Garmin smartwatch, headphones, accommodation, free shot drinks, and insoles for his running shoes.

But the tribunal, having seen the emails requesting the services, said Mr Stringer ‘invariably mentioned his work for the BBC’ and even sent some from his own work address.

‘The emails referred to his thousands of followers on social media, and we are satisfied that this was done as a way to obtain these goods or services, as the providers would get coverage on (his) social media accounts by being referred to by (Mr Stringer) in his tweets,’ Judge Welch said.

One exchange saw Mr Stringer tell a Garmin employee that he’d been promised a piece on Sky Sports but ‘being a BBC staff member’ he’d need to be ‘careful’ what he says.

In response, Garmin said if he was happy to do some posts then they would send two new watches to him.

And, during at least four years of his employment, Mr Stringer was provided with the use of two new lease cars from Total Motion, run by a ‘personal friend’ of his, Simon Hill, who later died in a car crash at the wheel of a luxury Bentley.

Mr Stringer claimed the new, high value cars were leant to him to avoid them sitting on a forecourt whilst not being leased.

These cars included a £54,000 BMW 530e M Sport and a £36,000 Audi A3 Sportback 40. There was no documentation for the first car, whilst papers for the second car confirmed he paid a lease of £0 a month – getting the car for free.

It was heard Mr Stringer referenced the ‘good service’ he received from Total Motion on his personal social media accounts. The tribunal said he was ‘promoting’ the firm to his followers.

The tribunal ruled: ‘If this had been a private agreement between friends, with no commercial aspect, there would have been no need to post tweets about the company.’

In early July 2021, Mr Stringer made a verbal protected disclosure to Stuart Thomas, the area manager for BBC local radio.

He claimed another journalist had been forced by his line manager to break Covid rules provided by the BBC and the Government and attend work despite having been in contact with someone with Covid.

It was heard that his line manager was ‘angry’ when the complaint was raised and tried to find out who had reported him.

Later that month, a staff member raised concerns about Mr Stringer’s use of Twitter – in particular regarding his endorsement commercial products and businesses.

And it prompted an email from Jonathan Lampon, then assistant editor for BBC Newsbeat, to Tim Burke, a senior news editor and head of editorial standards, to raise concerns.

Mr Lampon said of Mr Stringer: ‘He repeatedly continues to post tweets endorsing commercial products and other businesses and it’s rather tiresome. Time perhaps to bring the big guns in?’ 

The email referred to named turmeric shots – which had been delivered twice to BBC Radio Leicester – with the caption ‘heard lots of good things about these guys so giving it a go’.

In September 2021, the former Apprentice contestant was invited to a meeting and he was suspended.

An investigation found that in a nine month period there were in excess of 300 ‘shout outs’ to companies and in almost every email he sent requesting products, he mentioned his work for the BBC and his 51,000 followers.

‘In almost every email to companies requesting products (he) mentions his work for the BBC and his 51,000 followers,’ an internal investigative report concluded.

The investigation conclusion said his abuse of social media policy amounted to a written warning but the failure to declare the gift of the Audi A3 and the breach of the editorial guidelines meant he should be dismissed. 

He was sacked in July 2022 but appealed the decision.

Mr Stringer said he had not been ‘judged’ in the way by the same standards as Gary Lineker – who had been allowed to continue in his role without suspension despite sharing ads on social media.

But the tribunal said Lineker was not in ‘comparable circumstances’ to Mr Stringer so he was not subjected to a detriment.

The BBC said: ‘It was your receipt of cars worth tens of thousands of pounds, without you even having made your line manager aware…and in significant breach of (the BBC’s) Editorial Guidelines, which led to your dismissal.’

Mr Stringer sued for unfair dismissal as he believed the ‘sole’ reason for his dismissal related to the protected disclosure he made to Mr Thomas on July 20, 2021.

These claims were unanimously dismissed by the panel.

Judge Welch said: ‘The reason for their decision to dismiss and to uphold that dismissal was because they considered (Mr Stringer) had committed gross misconduct by accepting the ‘gifts’ of expensive vehicles from a company, without declaring this in accordance with the (BBC’s) policies.’

Mr Stringer and the BBC were contacted for comment.