ETZ 4(WR) IN THE EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL (SCOTLAND) AT EDINBURGH Order and Judgment of the Employment Tribunal in Case No: 4103401/2023 Heard on the Cloud Based Video Platform at Edinburgh on th August 2023 at 2.30 pm Employment Judge J G d’Inverno Mr Joseph Timoney v JCW Energy Services Limited — 2023

This was a complaint under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 about a £1,000 deduction from the claimant’s final salary. The parties agreed that the claimant had resigned on 28 April 2023, that the respondent’s vehicle handbook allowed recovery of the insurance excess in certain circumstances, and that the only material issue was whether the damage to the claimant’s van had already existed when it was uplifted from him.

The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant, from his former supervisor Tony Friel, and from former colleague Matt Jackson. The respondent’s case was that, after the claimant’s van and tools were collected from his home, the vehicle was later checked at a Tesco car park and damage was recorded to the nearside rear door, wheel arch and rear light, with contemporaneous photographs taken. Mr Jackson also said he noticed damage to the rear light while carrying out the tools check at the claimant’s home.

The tribunal accepted the evidence of Mr Friel and Mr Jackson as credible and reliable. It found that neither witness had stopped or left the vehicles between leaving the claimant’s home and arriving at the Tesco car park, and that the damage observed there was consistent with damage already being present before handover. The claimant’s evidence was ultimately qualified when he said the damage may have occurred while the vehicle was in his possession but unnoticed.

On the balance of probabilities, the tribunal found that the damage pre-dated the handover of the van on 28 April 2023. It therefore held that the deduction made from the claimant’s final salary was an authorised deduction, and the complaint of unauthorised deduction from wages was dismissed.