AN EX-HIBERNIAN footballer and former postman has been awarded more than £17,000 after he was wrongfully sacked from Royal Mail for sticking chewing gum from his mouth onto a customer’s garden ornament.

Former Dundee football player Graham Harvey spent 25 years working for the mailing company and was based at its Prestonpans office on Ayres Wynd when his contract was terminated for gross misconduct in 2020.

The postman, who was 59 at the time, was caught by the homeowner, who complained to his bosses and handed over CCTV evidence of the incident, which also captured the worker driving without a seat belt and leaving his Royal Mail van unlocked.

Late last year, an employment tribunal heard that Mr Harvey was unfairly dismissed and he has since been granted £17,244.11 in compensation for being fired.

The judgement of the tribunal awarded £6,772.58 relating to the period November 5, 2020, to November 22, 2021, and the monetary award exceeds the prescribed element by £10,471.53.

The hearing was told that in October 2020, a customer visited the Prestonpans office to complain about the chewing gum incident.

The customer also emailed CCTV footage to the office alongside a photograph and written complaint, describing the conduct as “disgusting”.

But the customer also claimed he and his wife “did not wish to make a huge fuss about it”.

When Mr Harvey returned to work the next week, he was brought in for a talk with Jordan Cree, the delivery office manager for the office, in which he admitted to driving without a seatbelt and leaving 20 items of mail on his passenger seat but denied placing the chewing gum on the customer’s premises – he later admitted to lying about the gum.

The tribunal heard that he was suspended at the end of the meeting pending “further investigations into an alleged incident where you have defaced a customer’s property”.

A disciplinary meeting was held, at which Mr Harvey admitted all of the allegations against him.

He described the chewing gum incident as a “stupid decision” and said he had done it “on two occasions at most”, while offering to apologise directly to the customer.

He also admitted driving without a seatbelt in rural locations.