Case Study #2

What employment law challenge was the client facing?

An external audit had uncovered evidence of financial wrongdoing by a long-standing employee, including a long history of invoices to a company the client had never dealt with.

How did the Howarths employment law team support the business?

Howarths supported the client to formulate the allegations against the client accurately and prepare a substantive disciplinary process that needed to be followed. We helped the client ensure they were doing what they needed to do to progress matters, despite the employee being signed off on sick leave.

We reviewed the evidence against the employee with the client in order to accurately set out the specific allegations and reassure the client that they had solid grounds to take action on.

We also supported the client to engage with Occupational Health regarding the employee being off sick, before sending all evidence directly to the employee and offering to accept written submissions so we could progress matters.

Howarths supported the client on every item of correspondence to ensure all required bases were covered, both legally and commercially.

What was the result for the business?

The client was able to proceed to dismiss the employee for gross misconduct.

The employee effectively accepted the dismissal and confirmed they would not appeal.

We ensured the client had done all that was needed to mitigate risks as much as possible, while enabling the client to achieve its ultimate aim.

No claim was issued against the client and management was able to devote its full attention to continuing to run the business.