Construction execs who lost £4m accused of ‘tickling each other's b------s'

Telegraph

19-06-2025

Two construction executives were asked if they had been 'tickling each other's b------s' by their boss after their project made a £4 million loss.
Donal Coppinger and John McInerney were sacked on the spot by Jason Carey, the group chief executive of the civil engineering and construction contractor Careys, when they revealed their costs had skyrocketed, an employment tribunal heard.
Mr Carey had believed the project was on course to make £3.3 million but learnt it was actually expecting a £4 million loss.
The civil engineering boss then 'lost his temper' and asked his senior executives: 'What have you two been doing for the last 12 months? Tickling each other's b------s?'
Mr Coppinger and Mr McInerney – who earned £120,000 and £145,000 respectively – were told: 'Get out of my sight and leave today.'
Now, the pair have won an unfair dismissal case after a judge ruled their sacking was unfair as there had been no proper investigation.
However, they were told they would be awarded no compensation from Careys because of their 'extremely serious failures' over company finances.
The hearing in central London was told the pair were overseeing the Riverside Waste to Energy plant in South East London.
The project, which they took over in 2023, had a tender cap of £39 million and Careys hoped to generate a profit of £4.9 million.
However, by May 2024, they realised costs had soared, but blamed a colleague who had left that month to have been in charge of finances.
In June 2024, a meeting was called with the company's top bosses, including Mr Carey. The CEO asked for an update on final figures, to which Mr Coppinger stated that, as things stood, it was approximately a £7.3 million negative swing from the target profit due to increased costs.
The tribunal heard he was told he did not need to continue presenting his slides.
'Dodgy, shifty and untrustworthy'
Mr Carey then said: 'What the f---?' He asked: 'How was this possible... how could this happen?'
Mr Carey called Mr Coppinger a 'c---' and then said, 'I always knew you were dodgy, shifty and untrustworthy' while pointing his finger at him. He then made the remark about ticking each other's b------s.
The pair were immediately sacked and told that the next contact would be through HR.
The tribunal was told the costs eventually soared to over £14 million.
The two men won their unfair dismissal claim as Employment Judge Kara Loraine said there should have been an investigation for it to have been a fair process.
But, Judge Loraine said they will not be awarded compensation as a result of their 'grossly negligent' failure to scrutinise the project's finances.