A soccer pitch drainage engineer given the boot over an affair with his boss’s wife — including sex in the office and company vans — has lost his case for unfair dismissal.
Anthony Smith was also accused of sending colleagues naked selfies that Lyndsay George sent him.
Husband Rob — alerted by a colleague — brought in an outside HR firm to investigate.
Mrs George, 38, admitted the fling and quit as director of Full Circle Irrigation — which cares for major golf courses and football clubs including Leeds United.
Mr Smith, who worked for the company for 11 years, was fired for gross misconduct.
He sued, claiming they only ever had sex outdoors — despite much of the eight-month affair taking place over winter — and outside office hours.
He insisted Mr George, 44, wanted to ‘get rid of him’, that witnesses had been bribed and said he felt like he ‘was on a murder charge’.
But employment judge Emma Tegerdine called his evidence unsatisfactory and said he was ‘wholly to blame for his dismissal’ adding: ‘His behaviour was culpable and blameworthy.’
She called his claim that sex only happened outdoors ‘implausible’.
But although she said Mrs George was a ‘credible witness’, the tribunal found there was no clear evidence Mr Smith had shared naked images of her.
Mrs George, who lived with her husband in a £350,000 home near Harrogate, is now back at the firm doing admin.
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