A WORKER off sick with stress was secretly filmed turfing a lawn by a private detective employed by Nissan, a tribunal heard yesterday.

The car firm suspected paint shop team leader Brian Murphy was running a business while off sick.

The Newcastle employment tribunal heard that the day after he went off sick with stress in June last year, the personnel department employed a private investigator to watch him.

The tribunal heard that he was secretly filmed undertaking odd jobs - he also turfed a lawn for a friend - and a dossier of activity reports was given to the company.

Mr Murphy, of Hylton Road, Jarrow, South Tyneside, worked at the plant for 16 years before he was dismissed in September last year after allegedly taking payment for outside work while on sick pay.

The tribunal was told that Mr Murphy received some money for work on the lawn, but he returned it.

The 47-year-old's GP and the company doctor agreed he was displaying symptoms of stress allegedly brought on by problems with colleagues at work. Mr Murphy has brought a claim for unfair dismissal against the company.

Tribunal chairman Tudor Garnon asked Nissan's personnel controller, Gayla Cowie, if a tip-off from the shop floor or a supervisor would lead to a private investigator being employed.

She said: "In most cases. It is not a common occurrence and it is not something we take lightly because there is a cost involved."

Senior personnel controller Sean Hodgson said: "We accepted he was stressed, we accepted he would do a level of activity described by his doctors as fishing, cycling, pottering around, the odd job.

"What we could not accept was the level of activity he was doing unknown to us and for financial gain."

The tribunal continues.