A manager at the Scottish Prison Service who was told by younger colleagues he was "losing the plot" as his paperwork repeatedly went missing was unfairly dismissed, a tribunal ruled.
Stewart Lamond, 66, a sales manager for the SPS, began to feel stressed when paperwork started to go missing, and colleagues told him he was "losing the plot" and "it must be an age thing".
He was eventually told by a colleague that other workers went through his desk and stole paperwork after he left each day at Fauldhouse depot, which dispatches goods made by prisoners.
Mr Lamont reported the issue to management but ended up being suspended and disciplined for falsely accusing his colleagues of theft.
Throughout this time he suffered very poor mental health, as well as a painful hip condition, and eventually asked bosses if he could take partial early retirement and work part-time.
SPS refused his request and instead sacked him on capability grounds.
An employment tribunal has now found that he was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against due to his disability.
The tribunal heard Mr Lamond began working for SPS Industries, the firm that facilitates the sale of goods, in April 1995 and became a manager at the site in 2006.
In spring 2017, he began to notice dispatch notes, sales invoices and orders he was working on were going missing from his desk and cupboard after he left the office at 4pm.
The tribunal judgment stated: "He would come in the next day to resume working on them and they would be gone.
"The claimant remarked on it with colleagues and people started to say things to him like 'I think you're losing the plot' or 'it must be an age thing'.
"The claimant became very stressed. A note would come through from dispatch or a sales order would come in.
"He would lock it in his desk or his cupboard and the next day it was gone.
"An articulated lorry would turn up to collect the goods and the claimant would not be able to find the paperwork."
Then, in June that year, another worker told him that when he left the office, other staff would "rummage around in his desk and take his papers away".
Mr Lamond reported what he had been told to management and an investigation was carried out that resulted in no action being taken against the accused staff.
Soon after this, he was signed off with work-related stress.
He also had several other periods of sickness leave due to stress and his hip condition, which caused him a lot of pain.
In March 2018, he was called to SPS headquarters and told he was being suspended pending investigation into claims he "created a false allegation into alleged theft".
Mr Lamond then suffered a mental breakdown.
When he eventually began to feel better, he decided to apply for partial retirement and a reduction to his working hours but this was refused.
He was instead called to a capability hearing and dismissed.
Employment judge Mary Kearns ruled the prison service failed to make reasonable adjustments to allow Mr Lamond to carry on working and that the outcome of his hearing on capability was "predetermined".
She said: "We consider that the failure by [SPS] to make the reasonable adjustment of permitting the claimant to reduce his hours, when he requested to do so in January 2019, taken together with the apparent predetermination of his case, takes his dismissal outside the band of reasonable responses that a reasonable employer might have adopted in this case."
A further tribunal hearing will be held to determine what compensation Mr Lamond is entitled to.
The SPS has been approached for comment
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