Cyclist crash 'joke' tweeter sacked from stockbrokers

[GTI]

Jesus Christ, get a grip you Twitter Nazis.. A young man's life is now ruined over nothing more than a bad joke {SMH}



Mr Qadar told the BBC the message was a "dumb mistake"

A man who tweeted that he had knocked over a cyclist but could not stop because he was "late for work" has been sacked from his job at a stockbrokers.
Cardiff University graduate Rayhan Qadar later told the BBC the message was a "dumb mistake" and he "did not hit anyone".
But his employer Hargreaves Lansdown said the tweet was "unacceptable" and confirmed his dismissal.
Avon and Somerset Police earlier appealed for any victim to call them.

'Bad joke'

A spokesman for the Bristol-based stockbrokers said one of its employees "failed to conduct themselves to the standards we expect of our staff".

"Upon becoming aware of this issue we have terminated this person's employment with immediate effect," he added.
Twitter users slated his apparent boast, but only after re-tweeting it and sharing it hundreds of times.
Astronomer Adam Whittaker wrote: "You know what's dumber than leaving the scene? Tweeting it for the world to see. I'll be following your case".
Mr Qadar later sent two more tweets to his 1,323 followers which said his earlier message about the cyclist was "obviously not true".
"I did not hit cyclist. Not today. Not ever. A bad joke on my part it seems.

"Anyone who follows me on Twitter know 99% of the things I tweet is nonsense."
Avon and Somerset Police earlier confirmed it was investigating the claims and appealed for any potential victim to come forward.

Source

[BertRoot]

Dumb thing to tweet. Make an example of the cunt.

[Teajunkie]

Agree with bertroot but why does his personal twitter account have anything to do with his job?
could you be sacked for swearing on Facebook !

[GTI]

Dumb thing to tweet. Make an example of the cunt.

Standard HR policies in most big companies these days is to do a full background check and this will show up for the rest of his life. I think a caution and a slap on the wrist would have sufficed, but a dismissal for gross misconduct is taking things too far IMHO.

Maybe I'm just a big softy, but I believe everyone deserves a second chance.

[funkyg]

This happened a while ago when that girl actually hit a cyclist, she was paraded all around the breakfast programmes saying didn't actually remember what happened.

[{{909}}]

ah, the land of free speech.

Do tweets and facebook posts show up in google searches? You *should* choose your friends when you maintain a social network profile, if the same info is freely visible to anyone via a search, thats way too intrusive.

[diablos]

Cyclist are the bottom feeder of the road, no insurance no tax a law unto themselves.

[BigBrand]

As George Carlin once said "Never underestimate the power of stupidity in large groups". I feel this sums up the majority of active Twitter users.

[Over Carl]

Agree with bertroot but why does his personal twitter account have anything to do with his job?
could you be sacked for swearing on Facebook !

Often companies will allege this kind of behaviour brings the company into disrepute which is often considered gross misconduct.

[muttleymacclad]

Guy's obviously a Grade A twat.
Tweeting a load of shit - well that's par for millions of twitter users i suppose. His twiiter name was even more stupid: Ray Pew. Note the BBC blurred that one out for the article.
Obviously brains aren't that vital for Hargreaves Landsdowne employees.

[inspectercoley]

Just hope companies don't start looking at people Digital Forums accounts!

[GTI]

Just hope companies don't start looking at people Digital Forums accounts!

I'm just thinking that I've written some pretty obscene filth on here over the years... stuff which obviously contravenes the terms and conditions of my contract.

[evilsatan]

A boy I went to school with got an intern-ship/junior role at Clifford Chance. He was filmed on the streets of London one night by a student magazine interviewing drunk 'city' types, he said he was a 'lad' and that it meant 'basically fucking people over for money'. Next came a fair amount of publicity in the media and overnight his social media profiles disappeared. Clifford Chance released a statement saying he was being disciplined. No idea if he has since been sacked but I'm sure it has had a massive impact on his future and limited his success going forward, all because of a stupid comment trying to show off whilst drunk.

[tawny]

Cyclist are the bottom feeder of the road, no insurance no tax a law unto themselves.

I am a cycle commuter, I am insured, no emissions = no tax.

You could apply that flat rule you've created to 30% of drivers if statistics are to be believed.

[Bald Bouncer]

I am a cycle commuter, I am insured, no emissions = no tax.

You could apply that flat rule you've created to 30% of drivers if statistics are to be believed.

I do agree but using a Daily Mail made up statistic does not really help the argument, there are around 34m vehicles on UK roads of which 4% are not insured at any one time. Over the past 5 years the uninsured driving figure has actually dropped by 5% but the annual cost of uninsured driving still adds about £30 to every motor insurance policy a claim by insurance companies themselves so worth taking with a pinch of salt.

[piggzy]

Don't see how what he did was that big of a deal.
Just a bit of a bad joke. Sure we've all done it.

Another reason to steer clear of social media facebook and twitter bollox.

[BigBrand]

Don't see how what he did was that big of a deal.
Just a bit of a bad joke. Sure we've all done it.

Another reason to steer clear of social media facebook and twitter bollox.

Presume you mean Tweeting about it rather than the incident itself?

[piggzy]

Presume you mean Tweeting about it rather than the incident itself?

Was referring to the tweeting of something that never happened.

[BigBrand]

Was referring to the tweeting of something that never happened.

Big shout.

[burner1]

Seems a bit extreme, but perhaps he was someone the company was looking to sack anyway and this was as good an excuse to do it.