What appeared to be an unflattering photo that initially did not look good.

There is a saying that picture never lies - but in Harrison’s case the words that accompanied the image were certainly not true.

The photographer said the delivery driver was slumped at the wheel of his company van, drunk and asleep.

The vehicle, with the company name emblazoned on both sides, was parked on a grass verge with some empty cans of strong larger on the grass near the driver’s door.

A number of images were sent to the delivery company just over a month after they were taken.

When Harrison, who had worked for his employer for just over two years, was summoned to his manager’s office and shown the images, he insisted he was not asleep or drunk.

But given the time between the images being taken, and him being asked about them, Harrison was unable to say exactly what he was doing at the time.

Tracking information provided from the van showed it was parked up for nearly 30 minutes.

Harrison guessed he was looking down at his phone or eating his lunch bought from a nearby fast food outlet he liked.

He feared the worst with the allegation being levelled against him – and for good reason.

After a year in the job Harrison was fired following a drunken brawl outside a pub where a colleague’s leaving party was being held.

Harrison felt it was an unfair dismissal because he acted in self-defence.

It was alleged at the time Harrison was drunk and an excessive drinker. He denied being a heavy drinker.

Determined to clear his name Harrison contacted our Employee Support Centre for help.

He submitted a disciplinary appeal with help from our representative who supported him to challenge the decision to dismiss.

Delighted Harrison was reinstated when his appeal was upheld following a disciplinary appeal hearing.

So you can understand his concern when he was suspended from work for being intoxicated on duty and bringing the company into disrepute, based on the photographs.

Following a fact-finding meeting held as part of the subsequent disciplinary investigation, the allegation that Harrison was said to be intoxicated was dropped.

He successfully argued the evidence did not support he was drunk or that the empty cans were his, as there was other rubbish visible in the images.

His problem remained that he could not definitively account for why he was photographed appearing to be slumped and asleep at the wheel.

At a disciplinary hearing he faced an allegation of sleeping on duty and bringing the company into disrepute.

Harrison knew exactly where to turn for help to challenge the allegation. He contacted us again.

He emailed the evidence to support the allegation to our representative.

It included images of him in the van taken from different angles and the complaint email from the person who took the photos, along with tracking information from the van showing it had been stationary for 26 mins.

In the email the sender alleged that Harrison was ‘a disgrace and absolutely hammered and asleep for a good 20 minutes’.

Our representative was aware that all cameras and smartphones save the date and time when an image is taken, and of how to view that information.  Those details showed all of the photographs provided as evidence were taken within a three-minute period.

Harrison, who believed he may have been looking down at his phone at the time the photos were taken, was asked by our representative to check his phone for messages sent on that day.

After doing so he found a lengthy text sent to his wife, one minute after the last photo was taken, telling her exactly what to say to a mechanic about a problem with the family car.

The evidence was used to demonstrate Harrison was not asleep and did not bring the company into disrepute, as at the time the images were taken he was composing a text to his wife during his 30-minute lunch break.

Delighted Harrison was cleared of any wrongdoing, his suspension lifted and he returned to work.