Scott Mills is reportedly suing the BBC after being sacked.
Scott Mills is reportedly suing the BBC
The 53-year-old presenter was abruptly fired from the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show in March after the emergence of “new information” relating to his “personal conduct” – which was later revealed to be linked to allegations of a historic sexual offence – but he has enlisted legal support as he believes he was unfairly dismissed.
Friends of the DJ believe he was used as a “scapegoat” by the broadcaster’s then-outgoing director-general Tim Davie, who wanted to take a zero tolerance approach following a string of scandals involving high-profile presenters, and so Scott’s legal team at Level Law have been negotiating with the BBC for weeks.
A source told Daily Mail online: “Scott is devastated, but he is also furious. He has lost not just his job but also something he loved over a police investigation which was dropped many years ago. He has lawyers. They are aggressive, and they are determined to get justice for him.
“Scott feels wronged, and there is a view that the BBC used him as a scapegoat to show that by sacking him the BBC has been cleaned up from past scandals such as Huw Edwards and Jimmy Savile.
“Essentially, Scott wants to clear his name. He wants to come out and tell his story but he can’t do that until the legal fight comes to a close.”
Those close to Scott are concerned for his mental health and believe it is important for him to clear his name.
The insider added: “Being fired has broken him. His mental health is in a very fragile place and, to him and his legal team, it feels totally unjustified, so they are fighting the BBC. There is an obvious claim for unfair dismissal here. Decisions like this ruin lives, and this one has ruined Scott’s.”
Fellow BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremny Vine recently speculated whether Tim Davie was keen to deal with the issue for his successor Matt Brittin.
He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “It might be why it was all done so quickly, I just don’t know…
“It seems like [the BBC] has all the information now and for some reason they didn’t have it earlier. Why not? That must be where the questions go… I don’t know whether there was a miscommunication inside the BBC or whether Scott held something back.
“But, just to add the balancing thought here: the police went over it, the CPS decided there was no case. You’d understand if Scott thought that was it, it’s been dealt with and investigated and it’s over.”
Scott, 53, a long-serving broadcaster on Radio 1 and later Radio 2, was dismissed after the BBC said it had received “new information” relating to his “personal conduct”.
The allegation, understood to relate to a period between 1997 and 2000, was investigated by police and later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Scott confirmed he was interviewed under caution in 2018 and that a file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, which concluded the threshold for charges had not been met.
The investigation was closed in 2019.
The BBC has since acknowledged it was aware of the investigation from 2017 but allowed Scott to remain on air until a few months ago, when his contract – reported to be worth £360,000 annually – was terminated within days of a complaint.
