A Christchurch tax worker smashed his car through his own Inland Revenue office because he was fed up with “incompetent management and workplace bullying”.

David Jerrold Theobald, 47, drove through two sets of glass doors and smashed a third at the Christchurch Inland Revenue building before coming to a stop.

Mr Theobald, a well-known musician in Christchurch who has worked for the IRD for 25 years, said he had been careful not to put lives in danger.

“I checked with the cleaners the night before to make sure no-one would be in the building,” he told The Dominion Post.

“I drove right up to the doors, looked both ways, then slowly pushed forward till the doors broke.”

Mr Theobald posted pictures of the damage on his blog , along with copies of legal documents he received from police and his employer following the incident.

One of the documents was a letter from Inland Revenue human resources head Patrick Crawford.

“Information has come to my attention which indicates that you may have intentionally driven a car through Inland Revenue’s Christchurch building,” Mr Crawford wrote.

“I am concerned that your conduct may be inconsistent with the Code of Conduct.”

Mr Theobald said he was upset with what he saw as workplace bullying and incompetent management at Inland Revenue.

“This has been going on for three years and now I’ve got four official information requests in with them and they’re making that as onerous as possible,” he said.

“This was just a way to make a gesture.”

He also said he wanted to highlight the potential for a terrorist attack if someone were to drive a car full of explosives into the building.

“It’s just another 9/11 waiting to happen,” he said.

Mr Theobald appeared in court yesterday. He has been charged with intentional damage and reckless driving and could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty of criminal damage.

Reprinted from:
http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2009/08/taxman-cometh.html

The Taxman Cometh…

We had a bit of a chuckle when we read this story on Stuff this morning: 

A taxman driven around the bend by continuing work woes drove his car through the building where he had worked for 25 years.

David Jerrold Theobald, 47, drove his Mazda 626 through the foyer of the Christchurch Inland Revenue building on Cashel St at 6.30am on Saturday after a three-year employment dispute.

He crashed through two sets of glass doors and smashed a third on the other side of the foyer before coming to a stop.

Mr Theobald said he had gone to great lengths to avoid risk to any staff.

“I checked with the cleaners the night before to make sure no-one would be in the building. I drove right up to the doors, looked both ways, then slowly pushed forward till the doors broke.”

Mr Theobald said he was fed up with what he saw as concealment of workplace bullying and incompetent management at Inland Revenue.

“This has been going on for three years, and now I’ve got four official information requests in with them and they’re making that as onerous as possible … This was just a way to make a gesture.”

He also wanted to highlight how easy it would be for someone with terrorist intentions to ramraid the building with a truck full of explosives. “It’s just another 9/11 waiting to happen.”

Doubtless there will be many of us who will at some point in our lives have been tempted, sorely tempted to lash out at the IRD. But the overwhelming majority manage to resist said temptation. And there’s a certain delicious irony in an employee of the IRD accusing the department of workplace bullying when we taxpayers regularly feel bullied by the likes of Mr Theobald and his colleagues!

And mindful of Mr Theobald apparently being a serial litigant, we also chuckled when we read this: 

Inland Revenue would not comment on the incident as it was before the court, but Mr Theobald has received a letter from human resources head Patrick Crawford.

In it, Mr Crawford said: “Information has come to my attention which indicates that you may have intentionally driven a car through Inland Revenue’s Christchurch building … I am concerned that your conduct may be inconsistent with the Code of Conduct.” 

The letter is extremely careful in its wording is it not? We would have thought that this was a pretty clear case of serious misconduct by way of the wilful destruction of departmental property; something that would normally warrant summary dismissal. Mr Theobald’s concerns about workplace bullying could very soon be addressed – but not in the way he may have expected!!