Row over hotel credit card goes to tribunal
A hotel bar manager claiming unfair dismissal has denied allegations that he used a £1,000-limit company credit card and £250 cash to treat travelling companions in the USA.
Ross McKellar told an employment tribunal that the Royal Highland hotel in Inverness had sent him on a Scottish Tourist Board-sponsored trip to attract US tourists.
Half-way through the two-week tour he said that an American hotel had declined his card, although he had not breached the limit.
He claimed that when he called the Royal Highland to question his card's limit, he was told to borrow from other business people on the trip and had to stump up £450 of his own money until the hotel upped the limit by £300.
McKellar said the hotel then questioned him over a £1,000 drinks deficit that occurred during his absence.
He claims he later caught staff at the Royal Highland drinking in the bar after hours without paying, but when he reported them he found he had to face a disciplinary hearing for allegedly calling the barmaid a thief.
The tribunal was adjourned until a later date.