An east London Sainsbury’s worker was fired after being caught taking bags for life without paying.
Niamke Doffou had worked at the Romford Sainsbury’s Superstore for nearly 20 years when he was caught on CCTV taking the plastic bags during a shop in August 2022 after selecting the ‘no bags’ option at the till.
Mr Doffou took his former employer to tribunal arguing his firing two months later was unfair.
But in a recent ruling, employment judges said the firing was a “reasonable” option open to Sainsbury’s due to his theft, despite “the low value of the bags taken”.
East London Employment Tribunal heard how the night shift assistant took the bags while buying food, pillows and bedding ahead of having visitors while working on the Bank Holiday weekend.
It heard that CCTV showed him making more than one trip to get bags after selecting the zero bags used option and checking his receipt at the end of his shopping.
When confronted by bosses, he said he was tired and was unaware of what he was doing when he took them without paying for them.
But they decided that he had been dishonest and had deliberately not paid for the bags, “taking the view, perhaps, that they were low value items that did not really matter”.
This meant they could “no longer have trust” in the long-standing employee.
Ruling against Mr Doffou, Employment Judge Eleena Misra said: “The CCTV footage and receipt clearly proved to the Respondent that the Claimant took bags for life without paying for them.
“The key thing was to understand why he did so and that was achieved by allowing him every opportunity to explain his admitted actions.”
