Contract worker wins unfair dismissal case over pottery purchase

A labourer who was dismissed for using company money to buy himself pottery has won his employment tribunal over unfair dismissal.

Cornwall-based Jata Construction dismissed employee P Pitchell over allegations of theft after he withdrew £100 from a company card to purchase pottery, a tribunal heard.

The tribunal heard he then notified the firm and asked how to repay the funds but was dismissed.

Employment Judge Clarkson ruled Pitchell’s claim for unfair dismissal was “well founded” and ordered the firm to pay him £26,000.

Pitchell had been employed as a labourer and driver by Jata for four years until the incident in August 2023 when he withdrew the cash.

The tribunal heard that, the next day, Pitchell phoned his employer to say he had taken the money and to ask about the best way of repaying it, before leaving £100 in cash in the company’s offices.

Jata then alleged stealing and misuse of company property that amounted to gross misconduct warranting dismissal.

However, the worker claimed that in the circumstances the dismissal had been unfair.

Judge Clarkson, hearing the case remotely in Bristol last November, said that although, under the Theft Act, borrowing could amount to theft, the provision only applied if the borrowing took place in circumstances and for a period that made it “equivalent to outright disposal”.

“No reasonable employer could have come to that conclusion,” he said.

“The respondent knew, prior to dismissal, that the claimant had contacted the office the next day asking to repay the money.

“It was not therefore reasonable of them to conclude that the claimant had the intention to permanently deprive the respondent of the money.

“Therefore, on the facts known to the respondent at the material times, it was not reasonable to conclude that the claimant had committed theft.”

The company was ordered by the court to pay a basic award of £2,572.12 and a compensatory award of £23,725.12.

Jata Construction, based in Bodmin, operates in the residential, commercial and civil engineering sectors.