Asda worker wins £21k payout after chain spied on her because they didn’t believe she’d broken back slipping on an egg

  • Grandmother didn’t know she had been followed until compensation hearing three years later
  • ‘I felt sick when I saw the footage, it just left me numb’

By
Andy Dolan

Last updated at 7:40 PM on 30th December 2011

A supermarket sent a private detective to film one of its workers as she recovered from a serious back injury sustained when she slipped on a broken egg in the store warehouse.

Grandmother Irene Heslop was left with a suspected spinal fracture after falling on to a concrete floor at the Asda store where she had been employed as a bakery assistant for seven years.

Mrs Heslop was left unable to walk long distances or lift heavy equipment following the fall and approached bosses to ask to return to work on lighter duties, but was told no such work was available.

Felt sick: Grandmother Irene Heslop was spied on by Asda because the chain didn't believe she had broken her back after slipping on a broken egg

Felt sick: Grandmother Irene Heslop was spied on by Asda because the chain didn’t believe she had broken her back after slipping on a broken egg

Around the same time, 15 months after the fall, the retail giant twice sent a spy to prove Mrs Heslop, now 65, was fit to work by filming her as she went about her daily chores.

The grandmother-of-two didn’t realise she had been followed until the footage was revealed three years after she was injured at the store in Hulme, Greater Manchester, during a compensation battle which saw her awarded a total of £27,000 for her injuries and loss of earnings.

One clip showed the grandmother-of-two walking – apparently without pain – from her home to visit shops before returning on foot.

Mrs Heslop, from nearby Fallowfield, said: ‘I felt sick when I saw the footage, it just left me numb. It just seems so over the top for them to follow me around and invade my privacy like that.

‘I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s left me feeling quite unsafe to know someone was following me around with a video camera and I didn’t know about it until three years later.

‘After seven years of service, it hurt anyway that they thought I was lying, but to be so underhand as to film me going around the shops and catching the bus, then store it away on file without telling me it existed just breaks my heart.’

Scene of fall: The Asda store in Hulme, Greater Manchester, where Mrs Heslop had worked as a bakery assistant for seven years

Scene of fall: The Asda store in Hulme, Greater Manchester, where Mrs Heslop had worked as a bakery assistant for seven years

Mrs Heslop, married to Roy, 67, a retired labourer, has been unable to work since the accident in March 2007.

Her medical claims were backed up by doctors at Manchester Royal Infirmary, who submitted evidence to her solicitors that her activities and lifestyle had been ‘considerably curtailed’ by the accident.

Although doctors were unable to agree on the extent of her spinal injury, one specialist said he believed Mrs Heslop had suffered a fracture.

She still receives regular injections and acupuncture following the injury and struggles to walk long distances.

The compensation claim was lodged while Mrs Heslop, a mother-of-three, was still an employee of the supermarket chain, although she has now formally retired.

Natasha Ross, of Manchester-based solicitors Pannone, who handled the case for Mrs Heslop, claimed the supermarket had put her client through nearly five years of unnecessary legal torment.

She said: ‘Irene was the innocent victim of an accident at work. I find it disappointing that her employers did not settle this case immediately.’

She said Mrs Heslop had encountered no previous disciplinary problems at the store.

A spokeswoman for Asda said: ‘The health and safety of our customers and colleagues is our biggest priority and if we fall short of our high standards, we will work to put things right.

‘We always investigate claims thoroughly to make sure we fully understand the facts and can reach the right conclusion for everyone involved.

‘We’re sorry for any upset caused to Irene through resolving this case, and wish her all the best for the future.’

Mrs Heslop started claiming industrial injury benefit at an initial rate of £24-a-week when her statutory sick-pay ended around six months after the injury.

As a result of her successful compensation claim, she has now given £6,000 back to the Department of Work and Pensions out of her settlement, leaving her with £21,000.

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The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Only the same as an Insurance company, or Benifits agency, checking the facts.

This seems too much like big brother to me.
Surely the doctor’s note should have sufficed.
If they have enough profit to conduct covert surveillance, just how much money are they making?

Why is this a story? Surely ASDA aren’t going to pay out on every claim without some investigation. Blame all those parasites that run the “where there’s blame there’s a claim” companies and those making false claims for all of this!

The thing is with these pain block injections, is they can be quite effective for a few months, so you are inclined to overdo things and appear really well. Also some people can walk around with pain which would flatten another person. Why couldn’t they send her to a medical person who could make an informed decision?

It’s nice that she repaid the benefit money 🙂 good to see some people aren’t selfish money grabbers! She deserves the compensation.

It is a shame she hurt herself but you can’t blame asda so many people fake injury to claim compensation or benefits.

I don’t see a problem. If it’s on film it either proves you are faking the injury and are not entitiled to compansation like a lot of people do or in her case it proved she had an injury and she was entitiled to compansation.

Is £21,000 enough compensation though?

Erm, she didn’t voluntarily give £6000 back to the benefits agency, they took it off her. If you claim any sort of injury payments and then recieve a settlement, the insurer writes to them to see if anything is owed before paying you.

Mrs Heslop has pursued a personal injury claim. It is usual for Solicitors to employ someone, in higher value cases such as this one, to make sure that she is suffering as she says that she is. Nobody wants a situation where people get awarded 21k and aren’t suffering….. it is also standard for the money received in benefits, as a result of an accident, to be paid back to DWP..

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