(sitting alone) Mr J R Brown v Represented by: Mr M O’Carroll - Advocate British Gas Services Limited — 2019

The claimant, a technical engineer, was dismissed on 8 March 2018 and then on 8 May 2018 dismissed for gross misconduct after the respondent's Quote Audit identified a pattern of repeated round-number time entries and a mismatch between quote time claimed and quotes actually recorded. The tribunal found that the claimant had conceded to the investigating officer that it looked as if he was "stealing time" and had "developed bad habits". It also relied on the evidence that 32 HIVE quotes had been claimed in time records but only 9 were in the system, and on the pattern that 37 of 49 interim breakdown jobs were recorded at exactly 60 minutes and 32 of 38 annual service visits at exactly 45 minutes.

The tribunal accepted that there had been broader GMB objections about the handling of audit cases and that some allegations were later identified as "case-building" and stripped out of the disciplinary process. It nevertheless found that the respondent genuinely believed the claimant had committed misconduct, had reasonable grounds for that belief, and had carried out a sufficiently thorough investigation. The tribunal applied the Burchell approach and section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and held that the appeal process, including the reconvened hearing, was fair when viewed as a whole. It found that the appeal panel concentrated on the quoting activity after the case-building elements had been removed.

On sanction, the tribunal held that summary dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses because the appeal panel concluded that the claimant had deliberately falsified time records in order to affect bonus entitlement. The separate breach of contract claim for twelve weeks' notice pay also failed. The tribunal found, on the balance of probabilities, that the claimant had been in repudiatory breach of contract because he had falsified records and was therefore not entitled to notice pay.