Mrs K Owens v British Car Auctions Ltd — 2020

Mrs Owens was employed by British Car Auctions Ltd from May 2005 until June 2019 as a Transport Manager. She was dismissed for alleged gross misconduct after a key box key was passed to a third-party haulier. The tribunal accepted that the respondent had a potentially fair reason for dismissal in misconduct, but the real issue was whether the respondent acted reasonably in investigating and relying on that allegation.

The tribunal found that the investigation was not even-handed. BCA did not interview obvious witnesses who might have confirmed or undermined Mrs Owens' account, including Jane Judson, other regular hauliers, or Charlotte Watling. It also did not properly test the conflicting evidence about whether handing out key box keys to known hauliers had been authorised or tolerated in practice. The tribunal noted that Mrs Owens had produced several supporting statements, but the respondent largely declined to investigate them.

The tribunal also found that there was nothing explicit in the disciplinary policy or SOP saying that giving a key box key to a haulier was gross misconduct, and no clear indication that the hauliers in question were to be treated as customers in the sense used by the SOP. Mrs Owens was a long-serving employee with a clean disciplinary record. In those circumstances, the dismissal was not within the band of reasonable responses and was unfair. The tribunal also rejected any Polkey reduction and did not make a contributory fault reduction, although it accepted that Mrs Owens had handed out keys, because the evidence did not allow a finding that that conduct was culpable given the uncertainty about the accepted practice.