Guilty as charged!

Celebi -v- Scolarest Compass Group UK and Ireland Limited is authority for the proposition that where an alleged theft is not put to the Claimant in those terms but described in the disciplinary invitation letter as, amongst other things, “discrepancies in banking”, the lack of precision in the charge will result in unfair dismissal, even though both parties knew that the charge was one of theft and not, as the Respondent’s case put it, a “loss”. The Claimant was a Chef Manager who was trusted with putting the canteen takings of a purported £3,400 in a security bag for transfer to the bank. When the bank opened the bag, only £400 was in it. This case underlines the importance of being clear with employees during a disciplinary process and not, for personal reasons or politeness, being euphemistic. One crumb of comfort is that the EAT also made clear that this was a ruling on a procedural defect. Consequently, the compensation might well be wiped out if the Tribunal, when considering the matter again, were to determine that even if a fair procedure had been followed, the decision to dismiss would have been the same.