A banker has been sacked by the Royal Bank of Scotland after it emerged he had spent thousands of pounds on hotels, meals, nightclubbing and taxis using his company credit card.
A London Employment Tribunal heard that Oleksiy Nesterenko, who earned £94,000 a year in the global banking and markets division, incurred nearly £5,000 worth of debts on the firm’s card after he ran out of credit on his own.
He was initially suspended, then sacked for gross misconduct and following a four-day hearing at central London employment tribunal, his unfair dismissal claim was rejected.
It was made known to the Court that the employee used the company card to pay for a flight in Russia, a hotel in Egypt, £900 in taxi fares and hundreds of pounds worth of meals and nightclub bills.
It was revealed that he claimed he was led by colleagues to believe the practice was “common” and “tolerated” at RBS.
Judge David Pearl said:
“It has become clear he never drew these matters to his manager’s attention.
“Although this does give rise to an inference of dishonesty it is just plausible that the claimant was burying his head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge the difficulties in which he was beginning to immerse himself.
“By using the corporate credit card, the advantage to him was that he was able to get credit at a time when his own credit cards had been barred.”