Mr Ramiz Badami v Leicester City Council — 2023

The claimant was dismissed without notice for gross misconduct after the respondent concluded that he had copied or held Council-owned CCTV footage from St Barnabas Library without permission and had not been honest when questioned about it. The tribunal found that the principal reason for dismissal was the respondent's belief that the claimant had been dishonest about having the CCTV footage on his personal phone.

The tribunal found that the respondent had a genuine belief in misconduct, based on the claimant's earlier denials or omissions when questioned by management and the information governance team, and on the account of a witness who said she had seen CCTV footage of the paper incident on his phone. The tribunal accepted that the claimant may have been sent the footage anonymously, but found that his earlier concealment and failure to identify who might have sent it reasonably informed the respondent's view that his later account was implausible.

The tribunal held that the investigation and disciplinary process were reasonable and procedurally fair. It found that the respondent took sufficient steps to assess the claimant's fitness to participate, gave him the opportunity to be accompanied or supported, and did not breach the ACAS Code. The tribunal concluded that dismissal was within the range of reasonable responses and dismissed the unfair dismissal claim.