A guest worker who quit Bermuda after a row with an Immigration official did so of his own volition, Government said last night.

According to an email widely circulated on the Island yesterday, the un-named British lawyer was given his marching orders by officials after a run-in at the Airport.

But according to Robert Horton, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, "the email mis-represented the facts completely."

The communication doing the rounds yesterday told how a British man was stopped at Immigration when he came back from a business trip because he didn't have a re-entry permit. "Words were exchanged" between the man and the official, it said, and Immigration subsequently called the man's firm to tell him to leave the Island by the end of the month because of his "rudeness."

This was not the case at all, according to Mr. Horton.

He confirmed that the man in question, an employee at Butterfield Bank, had a complaint filed against him by an official after a landing document dispute on February 9. This reported he had been "very difficult and uncooperative," according to Mr. Horton.

A standard letter in respect of suspected rule-breaches was sent out by the Minister, asking him to make representations on why his permission to work in Bermuda should not be revoked.

Mr. Horton said the expatriate — a Londoner of Jamaican heritage — wrote back within the required 14-day time scale "very apologetic" and saying "it was not his intent to be disrespectful or uncooperative."

He continued: "At this point we immediately accepted what he had said and communicated with his employer that the Minister was now satisfied and no further action was required. The bank was very pleased with that as they didn't want him to have to go and his wife was (working) at CedarBridge Academy and we didn't want her to leave either."

Mr. Horton said it was believed this was the end of the matter, but days later the man told his employer he was leaving Bermuda nonetheless.

In a statement last night, a bank spokesperson said: "We confirm that an expatriate employee of Butterfield Bank recently made a personal decision to leave Bermuda. Butterfield Bank cannot comment on personal decisions made by employees. We can, however, say that we believe the account of the alleged treatment is inaccurate. We enjoy a co-operative and productive relationship with the Department of Immigration."

The news came amid other recent accounts of expatriate workers having run-ins with Government entities.

Canadian construction worker Curtis Macleod's work permit was revoked in February after MP George Scott complained he disrespected him during a row on a building site. That same month, English doctor Catherine Wakely was asked by the Bermuda Hospitals Board to resign from her job after she wrote a letter to this newspaper questioning the closure of the Medical Clinic.

Last December, Australian chef Anthony Reynolds resigned from Elbow Beach Hotel after allegedly making a joke about putting arsenic in Premier Ewart Brown's food. He was escorted to the Airport by Immigration officials.