A senior New Zealand journalist claims he was fired because his bosses thought he was selling dangerous stimulant drugs in the newsroom toilets.
Herald on Sunday newspaper reporter Stephen Cook was fired in December 2008 after he was captured on camera repeatedly visiting an Auckland home under surveillance for drug dealing.
The newspaper's editor Shayne Currie said Cook, who is appealing his dismissal, had been to the house five or six times in a company car and "was not at the address for work purposes".
When asked by New Zealand's employment tribunal to explain why he believed he was fired, Cook said there had been gossip that he was involved with drugs.
"Most of the talk centred around far fetched assertions I was a major Auckland drug dealer," Cook said.
He said there were also rumours he had joined the violent Auckland Head Hunters Gang and that he was linked to a $5 million drug ring being run out of an Auckland prison.
"And I was selling (drugs) out of the toilets of the Herald on Sunday," Cook said.
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