Mr Lee Ellwood v Coca-Cola European Partners Great Britain Limited — 2019

Mr Lee Ellwood had worked for Coca Cola European Partners Great Britain Limited since 20 October 1997 as a Technical Representative. The tribunal found that Tech Reps were required to use the ServiceMax application to record jobs, times and locations live and accurately during the working day, and that Mr Ellwood understood how to use it and knew that records were meant to be entered in real time.

In October 2018 an issue arose when a manager checked a fuel card call and found that Mr Ellwood had recorded himself as being at a customer site in a different part of London, although the customer said he had left earlier. That led to an investigation of his ServiceMax records, which identified discrepancies including entries for sites he had not attended or could not access, and examples of overstated time. At the investigatory and disciplinary meetings he admitted falsifying records and, by the end of the disciplinary hearing, accepted that he had claimed overtime to which he was not entitled.

The tribunal accepted that the respondent carried out a proper investigation and had reasonable grounds for believing that Mr Ellwood had acted dishonestly. It also found that the disciplinary hearing was adjusted in light of his reported depression, including advice from Occupational Health and a postponed hearing, but that it was still reasonable for the manager to require him to attend if he was fit and to answer questions himself. The respondent took account of his length of service and health issues, but concluded that the dishonesty went to the heart of the employment relationship and that trust had been lost.

The appeal was not upheld. The tribunal held that the dismissal was a reasonable sanction in all the circumstances and dismissed the unfair dismissal claim.