Chivas Brothers v Robertson [2011]

The employee, in this case, was dismissed after spending nearly £100,000 on her company credit card over a ten month period, taking her spending well over the £5,000 per month limit. The employer argued that in doing so she had negligently caused significant financial damage to the company. She had not kept any records of the consumables she ordered, nor could she explain her authority for the excess expenditure, which was not supported by business usage. The items purchased had never been received into stock.

The Employment Tribunal found her dismissal to have been automatically unfair as step 2 of the statutory dismissal procedure had not been complied with. There were also procedural