Mr Stuart White v ABS Installations Limited — 2023

Mr Stuart White was employed by ABS Installations Limited as an installation engineer from 1 August 2017 until his dismissal on 30 January 2023. The tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was serious or gross misconduct. The central allegations were that on 7 October 2022, 24 October 2022 and 16 November 2022 he used the company fuel card to buy fuel for his own vehicle rather than the company van, and that he had also misled his manager about work said to have been completed on 1 December 2022. The tribunal accepted the Respondent's evidence that the van tracker data, clocking records and fuel receipts aligned with the allegation that the card had been used when the company van was on site and after Mr White had clocked off.

The tribunal rejected Mr White's contention that he could not have bought fuel for his own vehicle within the short time periods shown by the evidence. It accepted the Respondent's explanation that the Shell garage was close to the site and that, on the final occasion, Mr Jones had seen CCTV footage showing Mr White fuelling his own BMW diesel vehicle. The tribunal found that the Respondent genuinely believed Mr White had misused the fuel card and that the belief was based on a reasonable investigation.

Applying section 98(1) and section 98(4) ERA 1996, together with the Burchell approach and the band of reasonable responses test, the tribunal held that the dismissal was fair. It noted that the Respondent had commissioned an external consultant to investigate, provided the evidence to Mr White in advance, held a disciplinary hearing before another external consultant, and offered an appeal which Mr White did not pursue. The unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed and no monetary remedy was awarded.