Advice please

[SirPerceval]

The last company I worked for had to sack someone for gross-misconduct.  He had a company laptop at home and also the office key.

When he caught wind of the fact his game was up he wrote an aggressive email threatening the company (it was a company of 5 people) and the MD with unfair dismissal and all sorts of other things.  The MD wasn't having any of it, and demanded the laptop and office key be returned.  The (ex)employee said he was keeping them in lieu of the wages he was owed and the several months he was demanding on top of that for his unfair dismissal.

The MD got the police involved (for theft of the company property), and they were reluctant to do anything at first, stating it was a civil matter as the ownership of the property was in dispute.  However, something else must have interested them about the employee, as they arrested him in the middle of the night, and confiscated the laptop and the keys.  They were obviously interested in the computer for whatever reason and what was on it, and so they told the MD that they'd be keeping hold of it for their investigations.  5 months later and he still hadn't got it back!  I'd since left the company to go self-employed, but the last I heard was that the company still hadn't got the laptop back and that was at least 9 months from when it all started.

In hindsight I think it's best to make sure that any expensive equipment is signed for by the employee on a document stating that it's the company's property and must be returned on demand, etc.

Best of luck with it - doesn't sound like a very pleasant situation.

Poorly disguised "I got sacked for having porn on my laptop"

[StuartHopkin]

Right back on the normal PC, feel free to reply to this by PM if you want.

What do you have in place, do you have contracts? Do you have written confirmations of employment? Do you have an employee handbook?

It would be easier to try and recover the property whilst she is employed. Request the unit back, agree some sort of repayment terms if it has gone missing and she admits to it.

There are no grounds for constructive dismissal, I think Trips meant unfair dismissal. This would be if you didnt follow the correct procedures when sacking her. This can only be claimed if you have 12 months continual employment.

Anyone has the right to claim wrongful dismissal and this is usually sought on the grounds of discrimination due to sexual orientation, disability, race etc.

A few more details on how long she has been there and what she has done and I can advise you a lote better on this.


If you dont get the equipment back then you cannot legally withold wages unless you have a signed authorisation to make deductions from the employees wages. Note that this must have been in place before the incident. Even if she agrees to you deducting the money now it would still be illegal to do so.

If you do deduct the money from her wages illegally ACAS will be on your case with tribunal paperwork. Her having taken the unit will be a seperate case and will have no relevance to you deducting her wages.

ACAS are incredibly biased towards the employee and I would recommend not ringing them for any sort of advice, as they wont give it. They will only tell you the rules.

So in summary personally I would wait till she returns to work, try and get the equipment back, then sack her. I wouldnt mix the two as it sounds like you have seperate reasons for sacking her. In her termination letter list what is to be returned, when she doesnt return them I would involve the police.