FORMER chief ambulance officer Neil Tucker treated personal assistant Jean Guilbert ‘more like a piece of furniture than a human being’, it was claimed yesterday.

He has apparently been suspended pending an internal inquiry into his conduct.

An Employment and Discrimination Tribunal was told that his unreasonable behaviour forced her to quit her job.

Her partner, Ken Morrison, told the hearing that Mrs Guilbert (pictured) had been bullied, harassed and intimidated by Mr Tucker.

‘On one occasion he rebuked her over the intercom for something she hadn’t done,’ he said.

Mr Morrison told the hearing that Mr Tucker had been suspended in August and, to the best of his knowledge, had not returned to work.

A spokesman for the St John Ambulance and Rescue Service board of directors would not discuss after the hearing whether Mr Tucker had been suspended but said it acknowledged Mrs Guilbert’s complaint.