A TRANSPORT boss was sacked after an anonymous letter claiming she was having an affair with a business colleague was sent to her manager, a tribunal has heard.

Ann Marie Waugh, 47, was dismissed from her £40,000-a-year post with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) amid allegations she failed to declare relationships with staff at companies working for the quango.

In January 2012 she was dismissed after it emerged she had been seeing John McPherson, who runs the Scottish arm of UK services company GBM. The company had been awarded a major contract to clean trains on Glasgow's underground service.

A further disciplinary hearing was told Mrs Waugh, of Bishopbriggs, failed to declare she was the sister of the operations manager of another firm, Sasse, which has a £2.3 million contract to clean the subway plus bus and office premises.

SPT denied any impropriety in awarding the contracts but later found Mrs Waugh, who was a senior operations officer at Buchanan Bus Station, had been in breach of the staff code of conduct by failing to disclose the relationships.

Mrs Waugh, a former office manager for ex-Scottish Labour Party leader Wendy Alexander, claimed she had been the victim of a whispering campaign.

She appealed her dismissal in March 2012 and was reinstated to a demoted position of Business Improvement Officer.

However, after only three months in the position she tendered her resignation and has taken her former employers to an employment tribunal claiming unfair dismissal and sex discrimination.

A hearing in Glasgow has now heard Valerie Davidson, Assistant Chief Executive at SPT, tell how she was sent a letter that resulted in Mrs Waugh's dismissal.

Mrs Davidson told the hearing she was in charge of the register of interests and after receiving the tip-off she discovered Mrs Waugh had failed to register the relationship.

She said: "I checked the register and there was nothing on it.

"The letter made reference to the company GBM, who had been given two subway cleaning contracts. I asked Mrs Waugh if she was having a relationship with John McPherson, the director of the company, and she confirmed she was.

"I then asked her if there was anything else she wanted to tell me and she said there wasn't, but then disclosed to her manager a week later about her brother."

Mrs Waugh also gave evidence at the hearings and claimed she was reinstated in a "non job" and placed in the "naughty corner".

She said: "I was in a situation. I had to have a job otherwise I would lose my home. My point of view is that I was very aggrieved and I've never fully understood the reasons for my dismissal, which has had a knock-on effect on my life."

SPT lawyer David Hay questioned why she raised the grievance only after handing in her notice. She said: "I want to know what I did that was so bad I was dismissed for. I feel let down by SPT."

The hearing was adjourned until October.