The Payne Hicks Beach Employment team, led by James Townsend, Partner and Co-Head of Employment and Domonique McRae, Senior Associate, successfully acted for Zing Environments Ltd (“Zing”) in a defending a claim concerning alleged unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, unauthorised deductions from wages and/or breach of contract.
Ms Ospina Cadavid was employed by Zing as an Accounts and Payroll Administrator and as Head of IT, with each individual role being carried out on a part-time basis.
During a routine reconciliation exercise, employees for Zing found discrepancies within the payroll accounts, namely that overpayments were made to Ms Cadavid’s mother-in-law and to her husband. In addition, it was suspected that Ms Cadavid had, in breach of her contract with Zing, set up her own company selling IT products and purchased goods from her company in her capacity as Head of IT. However, it did not appear that she had disclosed her ownership and control of a company that she has engaged on Zing’s behalf to supply IT equipment to Zing.
Ms Cadavid was furloughed whilst a disciplinary investigation was launched into these discrepancies. Ms Cadavid resigned before the investigation could be concluded, however the investigation found that Ms Cadavid had committed gross misconduct and she was in any event dismissed with immediate effect.
As a result of suspected fraudulent payments to her own IT company and missing IT equipment, Zing pursued a counterclaim for breach of contract against Ms Cadavid and sought to recover the losses it had suffered as a result.
Claims
Ms Cadavid brought claims for unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, unauthorised deductions from wages and/or breach of contract before the London South Employment Tribunal and was represented by her sister. Ms Cadavid also pursued claims for disability discrimination but this was withdrawn following a Preliminary Hearing.
Ms Cadavid argued that she was being framed for the fraudulent payments by the Colombian mafia, but this was not upheld by the Tribunal.
Success
The London South Employment Tribunal dismissed Ms Cadavid’s case in its entirety and found that the dismissal was fair; that there had been no authorised deduction from wages and no breach of contract. The brevity with which the Judge dispensed with Mc Cadavid’s claims was testament to the skill and insight with which the Payne Hicks Beach team had argued Zing’s case.
Zing’s counterclaim for breach of contract against Ms Cadavid succeeded in its entirety.
Awards
The Tribunal ordered Ms Cadavid to pay Zing £12,125.30 in damages.
Comment
This was a complex case with numerous elements to be considered and defended separately. As part of Zing’s defence, the PHB team conducted robust financial analysis of the company’s payroll to identify fraudulent payments, as this case showed how skilled employees can be at defrauding unsuspecting employers. The PHB team were agile and quick-thinking in managing the many moving parts of this case, as is shown in the totality of the outcome for both Ms Cadavid and for Zing.
Conclusion
The PHB team are experts bringing and defending complex claims and advising on and issuing counterclaims. James Townsend is also an experienced advocate and is highly skilled in arguing his clients’ claims before the Tribunal. Click here to read the full Judgment.
For further information, please contact James Townsend,Partner, or, alternatively, telephone on 020 7465 4300.