Just a note for anyone in a similar situation. If you are going for a job, and your previous one was vacated, not on the best of terms. Get a friend to ring your previous employer for a reference and record the answer. This will help you establish if a bad reference was forthcoming or not.

If I can't give a glowing personal reference for someone, I simply say that he/she was a good employee and it's company policy to just confrim employment dates.