Saghir Ahmed v Wincanton Group Limited — 2026

The tribunal refused Wincanton Holdings Limited's application for Saghir Ahmed to pay £2,914.20 in costs arising from his failure to comply with case management directions and preparation for and attendance at a preliminary hearing. The sum was requested costs, not an award. The judgment did not decide the merits of the underlying employment claims.

Ahmed had failed to provide information requested after the case management hearing on 2 February 2026 about proposed race discrimination and whistleblowing complaints. The tribunal rejected his explanation that he had not received or could not access the orders. He had not raised those difficulties in his correspondence and had supplied the requested loss of earnings information. At the July hearing, he confirmed that he was not pursuing whistleblowing or automatic unfair dismissal claims.

Applying Rule 74(2)(a), the tribunal found that the failure to comply with one set of directions did not amount to vexatious, abusive, disruptive or otherwise unreasonable conduct. It took account of Ahmed being an inexperienced litigant in person, English not being his first language, and his use of an Urdu interpreter for a substantial part of the hearing. His non-compliance caused additional work and inconvenience, but the hearing narrowed the issues and dealt effectively with the listed matters. The respondent was not significantly prejudiced.

The threshold for a costs order was not met. The tribunal also held that it would have declined to award costs even if that threshold had been met. Alongside the limited effects of the non-compliance and Ahmed's circumstances, it considered the timing of the application, which had been sent at 8pm on the Friday before the Monday hearing. Ahmed was working nights and had very little time to consider or respond to it. No costs order was made.