[2025] UKUT 041 (AAC)

It is an agreed fact that on 30 October 2020, the Appellant was suspended from duties on full pay in order for her employer to conduct an investigation into the alleged thefts. This was communicated in a letter (dated 30 October 2020) [79] which was handed to the Appellant, in person, by AW (Director of Services) on that same date. The final paragraph of the letter stated:

“During the course of your suspension, you are instructed not to contact or to attempt to contact, or influence, anyone connected with the investigation in any way, or to discuss this matter with any other employee or client of [the employer].”

The DBS went on to find, that on the basis of the Appellant’s call to FOA on 30 October 2020 and then her attendance at the workplace on 31 October 2020, she had breached the terms of her suspension.

At the investigation meeting on 17 November 2020, the Appellant admitted calling FOA on the evening of Friday 30 October to explain that she had left personal items at the workplace. She admitted attending the workplace on 31 October 2020 to look for and collect these items. She said she remembered about these items being at the workplace on Friday evening, hence the call to FOA and the arrangement to collect them the following day.

She again admitted, in the disciplinary hearing on 10 December 2020, that she had attended the workplace on 31 October 2020 to collect her medication and a certificate of manual handing. She stated that she did not know this was a breach of her suspension and offered her apologies for this action. In her letter of appeal against the summary dismissal (dated 9 January 2021), she stated that on 31 October 2020, she did not contact or attempt to contact or influence anyone connected with the investigation. She pointed out that the letter did not say she could not collect her personal property. She did not discuss the investigation with FOA, who was unaware of both the suspension and the investigation. She repeated the same in her representations to the DBS, asserting that she did not believe she had broken the terms of her suspension.

Both the employer and the DBS found it proven, on the balance of probabilities, that the Appellant had breached the terms of her suspension letter, on the basis of the statement of FOA relating to the Appellant’s attendance at the workplace on 31 October 2020, as set out in the paragraphs above.