I was fired for Gross Misconduct today.

[HoldingOnatoday]

Just need to talk to someone outside of my family really. It’s been a tough time recently, lost my mum and then I got Pneumonia and ended up in intensive care for six weeks.

I returned to work on Friday and had an investigation meeting where I was accused of submitting fraudulent expense mileage claims. I disputed some which were left on an agree to disagrees. Some id accidentally left in, where I’d been to visit clients homes, the clients had cancelled and I’d forgot to remove the mileage. Its auto done for us but alas I should’ve manually removed them. I accept responsibility and this is on me.

I’ve put in £10,000 (I do a lot of driving/stay in hotels) worth of expenses in the last year and £900 was found to be fraud. These were the cancelled ones I’d not deleted. They’re going to contact the police and I’m not sure if anything will come to it. It was done more job negligence (I’ve not been up to par) than maliciously. I’ve been scattered brained, driving 7 hours a day for work often and running on empty.

The thing is I’m good at my job, I’m a good person I’d like to think. But I’m so broken by this, I’ve finally got a good credit rating, which will now be damaged by mortgage repayments and bills being missed. I’m also scared at the prospect of going to prison/declaring this to future employers. I have offered to pay back and this was rejected.

Im not looking for Sympathy, just for a way forward because I really feel like ending it all today. I’ve applied for Christmas temp work today but not sure if anything will come from it.

Yes- unless there are others found that have been doing the same it seems shady. Fair enough if they’ve investigated Everyone and she was the only one found, but if they just randomly decided to check up on her it seems suss. And I’m sorry but I find it completely ridiculous the manager she whistle blew on conducting the interview, to me that’s a clear conflict of interest.

Weirdly enough my manager who had approved the expenses was the one chairing in the investigating meeting and the same person I’d whistleblown about😬

So the person whose job it was to check your expenses, and didn't do it, is also the person that you whistleblew about,
and just happened to be chairing the investigation into you?

That stinks to high heaven... and I'm no legal expert but he doesn't seem credible and had a strong motive to get rid of you - also could he deliberately have missed the expenses issue because he knew it would be a way to get you out.

You mention a meeting in Feb where you reported your MH issues... isn't this about the time he increased your work load.

There is so much that is wrong with the way your company have treated you.

I really hope you speak to an employment solicitor soon... you can use some of your posts here to do a timeline summary for them. Please think of this as having someone to help you clear your name and protect your future career. Not a fight but getting acceptable closure, and having someone knowledgable to bear the burden of this. It will make you feel less exhausted to have someone in your corner - not more. Wishing you all the best.

id love to say that it’s a lot, but my colleagues are a lot more. Some clear £1200 a month, sometimes more. We don’t only do a lot of miles, we also upfront for hotels and food and supplies. Some people stay away 2 nights a week etc.

I feel a bit better today. Less overwhelmed and a bit more relieved. Happy to be gone

Yea that place sounds toxic in how they’ve treated you and just jumped to the worst conclusion. That trash has taken itself out and onwards and upwards for you OP. You’ll get through this and come out stronger. Many people have been treated horrifically by their companies, I know some stories - and just look at the post office scandal. Tough this out and know you’re not alone , you m won’t be the first , won’t be the last.

There are not clear grounds for gross misconduct here. Facts alone don’t make something fraud, it needs intent and dishonesty, which aren’t obvious in this case. That’s why the system matters. If OP had manually entered false mileage or invented visits, intent would be clear, but failing to remove an item from an autofilled system looks more like an admin mistake, not fraud.

It is not discriminatory to investigate an error, but it’s a whole different story when the company targets one person. OP might not be entitled to know if there were more investigations but a Tribunal will be. If they target her especially when she was seriously ill, under massive stress and had already blown the whistle on her manager. Letting the same manager she reported run the disciplinary was completely out of line.That’s a clear conflict of interest.

OP has a strong case , even being under under 2 years of service as this does not apply to whistleblowing and discrimination case. Both classify for automatic unfair dismissal, especially whistleblowing will be easy to prove.

As I said, I am not expert and I suggest OP to call ACAS for full guidance but based on the details we have, she could potentially turn the situation to her favour.

Glad to hear that you are feeling a bit better today.
I am also happy you don't work there anymore. There are truly awful companies out there but not all are the same.

Discrimination because she as a woman was sacked for Gross Misconduct but her manager (a man) who signed off the expenses keeps his job. In fact they make head of the inquisition

Definitely. Very unfair annd biased reaction, id this is such a severe fault what are the consequences for the manager? Plus the root cause is a shitty system, where do they address that when they jump to gross misconduct?
And repercussions for whistleblowers are illegal, not sure what else you’d call having the person she blew the whistle against in this process.

so is workplace bullying if they’ve only checked her expenses with a fine toothed comb, not everyone else’s.