EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 8002200/2025 Heard at Edinburgh on April 2026, with Deliberation on the th April and May 2026 Employment Judge J G d’Inverno Mr G Holmes v TSB Bank plc — 2026

Mr Gavin Holmes sought a declaration that no contractually valid company-car termination charge had been created and that he was not liable for the £7,442.16 demanded by TSB Bank PLC. Although his original proceedings also alleged an unauthorised deduction from wages, he subsequently accepted that TSB had made no such deduction and stood upon his contractual claim. The Tribunal dismissed that claim for want of jurisdiction because Article 3 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (Scotland) Order 1994 applies to an employee's claim for recovery of damages or another sum and did not empower it to grant the declaratory remedy sought.

The Tribunal held that TSB's contractual counterclaim remained within its jurisdiction under Article 4 notwithstanding the dismissal of Mr Holmes's claim. It found that Mr Holmes accepted the company-car scheme in August 2022, signed a driver declaration in October 2022 and agreed to be bound by the scheme rules as amended from time to time, including liability for an early termination fee if he left TSB's employment before the end of the lease for a reason other than redundancy. After receiving TSB's message of 25 November 2024 warning that termination fees had increased substantially and explaining how to obtain a current quotation, he continued using the car and did not request a quotation until after deciding to leave.

The Tribunal rejected Mr Holmes's defence that his understanding of the potential amount amounted to essential error preventing a contract from being formed. It found that any error was unilateral and concerned an expectation about the future amount of a variable fee, rather than the nature or legal effect of the obligation, and was not sufficiently material to preclude agreement. TSB's counterclaim therefore succeeded, and the Tribunal ordered Mr Holmes to pay TSB £7,442.16. No interest or separate remedy components were recorded.