Mr Thileephan Sri Kathirgama Sampanther v Excellent Entertainment Ltd — 2020

Mr Thileephan Sri Kathirgama Sampanther was dismissed by Excellent Entertainment Ltd for alleged gross misconduct. The Respondent said he had contacted a competitor and offered to sell its customer database. The Claimant denied doing so. The Tribunal accepted that the Respondent had reason to suspect the Claimant, because it had received a LinkedIn message apparently linked to him and he was in possession of the database, but it found that the Respondent did not make a proper investigation before dismissing him.

The Tribunal found that there was no real investigation into whether the LinkedIn message had in fact been sent by the Claimant. It said the Respondent did not check the obvious point that the message was not sent from the Claimant's long-standing LinkedIn account, did not investigate when or where the account had been set up, did not check the IP address, and did not enquire about possible previous messages. It also noted that the Claimant's own account showed he was not a regular LinkedIn user, and that the message appeared to come from another account using a version of his name. The person who suspended him had already typed up the dismissal letter the day before the meeting, and the appeal was heard for only 5-10 minutes before being rejected.

The Tribunal held that the dismissal procedure was unfair. It made no Polkey reduction because it was impossible to assess what would have happened if a fair procedure had been followed. It also made no deduction for contributory conduct because there was no evidence that the Claimant had sent the message. For remedy, the Tribunal awarded a basic award of £1,442.31, calculated on three full years' service, three weeks' pay, and a weekly pay figure of £480.77. It awarded a compensatory award of £16,826.54, covering lost earnings from dismissal until the Claimant obtained alternative employment on 5 August 2020, plus two weeks' pay for loss of statutory rights. The total award was £18,268.85, and no uplift was added under the ACAS Code.