Ex-legal chief relieved after fearing tribunal loss would cost her home
Denise Aubrey will only have to pay Northumbria Police £15,000 costs and not £645,000 which she feared.
A former legal chief who feared having to sell her home after she lost a controversial employment tribunal has spoken of her relief at only having to pay a police force £15,000 costs.
Denise Aubrey’s employment tribunal led to a series of embarrassing allegations being aired about Northumbria Police, including details of alleged affairs between senior staff, claims of a punch up at a barbecue and public money being spent on a cover-up.
She lost her claim and the force initially sought her to pay costs of £645,000.
Ms Aubrey claimed the force has spent more than £100,000 in legal expenses trying to reclaim their costs from her.
The former head of legal services, who worked for Northumbria Police for 20 years before she was sacked for gross misconduct, said she would have been bankrupted if she had been ordered to pay £645,000.
She said: “I have lived through 18 months of hell and lived in terror of losing my house and everything I ever worked for.”
Ms Aubrey said the force was “disingenuous” when it said the £15,000 would be put back into policing when it had spent around £100,000 on the costs hearing.
“The decision by the judge allows us to move on and do what we do best, to protect the people of Northumbria and serve our local communities with pride.”
The costs application was made before the tribunal panel during a hearing in Leeds last month.
