EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4103832/2023 Held at Inverness on 15, & July and August 2024 Employment Judge J M Hendry v Ms Jacqueline Noble Scottish Ambulance Service Board — 2024

Ms Noble, a long-serving Scottish Ambulance Service manager, was dismissed in April 2023 after an investigation into her use of a pooled vehicle. The tribunal accepted that the respondent investigated concerns about a 20 July 2022 lunchtime trip and later pool-car use on backshift, suspended the claimant, held a disciplinary hearing on 17 April 2023, and upheld dismissal on appeal in July 2023. It found the claimant and the management witnesses generally credible, but noted a contradiction in her evidence because she accepted apologising for the July incident while still maintaining that she had been entitled to use the vehicle when on backshift.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal held that the reason for dismissal was conduct under s.98(2)(b) ERA 1996. Applying s.98(4), the Burchell test, the ACAS Code and the range of reasonable responses approach, it found the investigation was reasonable, the respondent had a genuine and reasonable belief in misconduct, and the dismissal decision was fair. The tribunal rejected the claimant's criticism of the investigation and appeal process.

On wrongful dismissal, the tribunal accepted that the respondent had no specific written policy on pooled vehicles, but held that this did not assist the claimant. As a senior manager who had set up the booking system, she knew the vehicle was for business use and that the 20 July journey to lunch was impermissible. Her repeated use of the vehicle on backshift, together with unaccounted mileage and the absence of convincing examples to justify that usage, amounted on the balance of probabilities to gross misconduct justifying summary dismissal. The separate arrears of pay and Working Time Directive claims were dismissed because they were not insisted upon.