Maid stealing sweets loses appeal

A school pantry maid, sacked for helping herself to five bars of chocolate, has lost her claim for unfair dismissal against contract caterer Gardner Merchant (now Sodexho).

Gloria Miller took the bars, worth £1.37, from a sweet cupboard at Strathallan School in Perthshire, where she worked in the kitchen.

An employment tribunal in Dundee heard how she was caught leaving the confectionery store by chef Stuart Gordon, who asked her what she was doing.

She told him she was just getting "sweeties" and that she would pay for them. She then finished mopping the floor and took the chocolate away.

She was suspended the next day.

Miller said she left a note and £1.37 to pay for the chocolate, but it was not found.

The tribunal said the management had reasonable grounds for believing she had intended to steal the chocolate.

The hearing was told she had a previously unblemished disciplinary history.