This is the tale of the refrigeration engineer who faked references on his resume, wrecked customer equipment and almost electrocuted a work colleague.
Then when he was dismissed by his employer, he applied for and won, more than $10,000 for lost wages and distress.
This is a true story that was first published in the New Zealand Herald earlier this week.
The employer, Gordon Faber, said he was stunned by the decision handed down by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).
"It doesn't matter that the employee is a fraud and you can prove he's a fraud - you'll still lose the case,” Faber said from his Independent Refrigeration and Electrical business in Whakatane, New Zealand.
Faber said he hired Friedriech Gostmann last year to work for his company, installing and repairing commercial refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.
Gostmann had a good reference from his former employer and his resume boasted of more than 15 years experience.
But on the job Faber said everything seemed to go wrong. First, Gostmann burnt out compressors on three refrigeration units by overcharging them.
“He couldn't even do a basic flare connection - the first thing an apprentice learns - so customers lost all their gas,” Faber said.
“Then he almost electrocuted an apprentice by telling him cables had been isolated when they had not.
“The cables short-circuited just before the apprentice touched them.”
Faber maintains Gostmann initially agreed to resign, although the ERA ruled he was confronted with his failings and fired on a single day.
Faber then contacted Gostmann's former boss in South Africa and found out he wasn't a tradesman after all but a former handyman.
When contacted by the Herald, Gostmann said he used to line up fridges, which he said was a technician's job in South Africa.
However, his qualification was a two-week course designed to get a work visa, compared to the New Zealand standard of three years' full-time study with extensive practical requirements.
Gostmann admitted to the ERA that he faked his reference letter and had it signed by an unwitting office person.
ERA member Rachel Larmer accepted that Gostmann had misrepresented his skills and was not competent to do the job.
But she rejected the company's claim that his incompetence justified his dismissal, saying a fair and reasonable employer would have given the man several warnings and put him through performance management.
Faber said the case cost him $38,000 in legal fees and the business, which owes $30,000 in tax, is still struggling to recover.
According to the Herald, this is a familiar complaint from NZ employers who often complain about the ERA.
The newspaper cited the case of an Auckland hairdresser who asked her boss for the weekend off to go to her grandfather's funeral but secretly went to the Big Day Out concert instead.
She was sacked but won $2000 in compensation. A Christchurch repairman who admitted supplying drugs to a workmate was sacked but won $12,000.
Another controversial case mentioned in the article involved a liquor manager at a liquor store who was sacked for drunken and abusive behaviour but still won $62,000 in lost income and compensation.
Witnesses claimed he abused other staff members and some Indian customers, swore aggressively at a colleague, harassed a customer's wife and groped a promotion girl.
Do you have any nightmare employee stories to tell that are suitable for publication? Send them to sandravandijk@yaffa.com.au