FIFE Council has been ordered to reinstate a sacked Dunfermline teacher and pay him over over £11,000 in loss of earnings.

An employment tribunal highlighted "serious and numerous" flaws in the dismissal of David Love.

He was working at Duloch Primary School before being sacked in June last year.

This followed him being arrested and charged in October 2022 in relation to an assault which was not related to his teaching job.

After informing his headteacher, Mr Love was suspended from his £47,556 a year post.

The court case was dropped by prosecutors in the December however Fife Council continued the investigation against him and with disciplinary proceedings.

The employment tribunal heard that Mr Love had attended a Christmas night out with his colleagues.

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Soon after this, an investigating officer was appointed by Fife Council and she met with Duloch headteacher Laura Spence in January "to identify potential witnesses."

The ruling by tribunal judge Amanda Scott said there was no reason why the headteacher "should be in a position to identify relevant witnesses" and said there was "no reason identified" as to why these individuals would be relevant witnesses to the allegation which was being investigated.

She said the investigator, described as NM, had taken part in a "fishing exercise" to see if any additional concerns about Mr Love could be identified.

"NM did not take reasonable steps to investigate the allegation against the claimant," the ruling stated. "She did not contact the Procurator Fiscal to see whether any information could be provided by them.

"She did not contact the police at that stage to determine whether any information could be provided in relation to the allegation specifically.

"Instead she focussed her investigation on what had been said by and to staff at the Christmas night out and conducted a fishing expedition to identify any concerns the claimant’s colleagues might have in relation to him. This approach was fundamentally unfair."

In February, education chief Shelagh McLean wrote to Mr Love saying further information had come to light as part of the investigation.

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She cited a historic allegation of assault which was reported in 2022, an assault on an adult in 2012 and an allegation that he had threatened young children with a knife on an unknown date in 2014.

"All allegations call into question your professionalism as a teacher," stated Ms McLean, who wrote to Mr Love in June last year dismissing him from his post for "gross misconduct".

The letter stated that she considered he "inflicted physical harm or unwanted physical contact" and said that while he had not “to date, been convicted of the charge”, she concluded that the incident did occur and was satisfied that it constituted assault.

"I have found that as a result of the assault you are unsuitable to carry out the duties of your post notwithstanding the lack of conviction," she added.

Mr Love filed the case with the employment tribunal, saying he had been "unfairly dismissed" by Fife Council, stating that his sacking was both "procedurally and substantively" unfair.

The tribunal said Ms McLean did not take into account the claimant’s clean disciplinary record or his length of service when taking the decision to dismiss him.

"Ultimately the respondent (Fife Council) took an early view as to the guilt of the claimant and the investigations carried out were focussed on obtaining additional information which would substantiate that view," the ruling added.

"There was no balance to the investigation and no effort to identify evidence which might be supportive of the claimant’s position.

"No steps were taken to investigate what the claimant was saying had happened in relation to a number of issues. It would not have been onerous to ask the police or the Procurator Fiscal for information regarding the decision not to proceed with the charge against the claimant.

"Unfairness was baked into the whole procedure. The flaws were so serious and numerous that the tribunal could not accept that had a fair procedure been followed the claimant would have been dismissed."

Commenting on the case, Eileen Rowand, the council's executive director for finance and corporate services, said: "As a responsible employer, we don't discuss the individual circumstances of any current or former employees."