• According to a Birming ham Industrial Tribunal an employer
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who cannot identify the individual responsible for an act of gross misconduct is entitled to sack group of suspects.
The tribunal was told thr RG Bricknell, PJ Maun and REW Allen, had been employed at Eveson fuels' Dorridge depot. In July anc August 1987 the company had suspected a loss of 2,000 litres of diesel. In September a stock cheek had showed that the losses had been escalating considerably, the total loss coming to some 15,000 litres — loss of over 24,000. Investigations had revealed that a swivel bracket on one side of the meter had been missing, allowing the counter to be lifted on one side, thus pre venting the meter from recording. When the meter had been sealed no further losses had occurred.
Suspicion as to who had been responsible had been narrowed down to four tanker drivers. When interviewed all four had seemed bewildered. They had been suspended pending further enquiries. The company hafelt able to exclude the fourth driver but had been unable to narrow the field down any further.
The tribunal said it was satisfied that the company had concluded that one or more of the three could have been responsible following a comprehensive investigation, and that the company had done its best to identify the culprits.