In Farnan v Sunderland Association Football Club the High Court has provided a useful example of what can be considered gross misconduct in relation to the misuse of confidential information.
Facts
Mr Farnan was the International and National Marketing Director for Sunderland Football Club. After a lengthy saga involving many twists and turns, the club summarily dismissed him without notice, having suspended him and trawled through his work emails.
The club pinned the dismissal on a number of matters including:
- alleged breaches of confidence, including sending numerous emails to his personal email address and wife’s email address;
- sending confidential information to other parties (including the club’s ex vice-chairman, David Miliband);
- sending a lewd email attaching a Christmas card showing ten women with their breasts exposed with the title ‘Breast wishes for Christmas’; and
- making derogatory comments about his colleagues.
The Court dismissed most of the allegations as lacking the requisite character to amount to gross misconduct but found that Mr Farnan had committed serious and repeated breaches of contract by ‘banking’ confidential information about sponsorship bids, which he sent to his wife’s private email, purportedly for administrative support but in fact to keep evidence if he ever ended up in litigation with the club.
Mr Farnan had also used confidential bid documents for his own purposes in seeking employment, briefed a journalist against clear club policy, and wrongly disclosed a sponsorship agreement to a third party. This was sufficient justification for dismissal without notice.
The Court did however, criticise the club for trumping up part of its case against Mr Farnan. Notwithstanding those criticisms, Mr Farnan’s claim for breach of contract/wrongful dismissal was accordingly dismissed.
Comment
The case is a useful example of the types of misuse of confidential information that can amount to gross misconduct and a warning for employers who use the ‘scattergun’ approach by throwing every allegation they can think of at employees.
Farnan v Sunderland Association Football Club [2015] EWHC 3759 (QB)
