An Iceland worker in Paisley who was sacked after eating a Twirl from a multipack has won a £3,000 lawsuit.
CCTV captured Sharon Cassidy enjoying a chocolate bar from a packet on the shop floor, that she didn't pay for.
She had worked as a part-time sales assistant from 2004 in the supermarket's Renfrewshire store, an employment tribunal in Glasgow heard.
When she was confronted Miss Cassidy claimed she believed the opened pack of Twirls belonged to another colleague - and argued that members of staff often ate each other’s food.
A pack of five Twirls cost £1, meaning one of the chocolate bars would have been worth 20p, reports The Mirror.
The incident with the Twirl bar happened in February 2019, when she was asked to tidy up items that had been left.
When a duty manager took over from Miss Cassidy, the hearing was told they found an open five pack of single wrapped Twirls with only one remaining.
The tribunal heard the packet was to be reduced from the night before as it had burst open, and there were just three of the five chocolate sticks left.
But when senior supervisor Margaret Paterson checked CCTV cameras, the hearing was told Miss Cassidy could be seen handing one of the Twirl bars to a customer's child in a pram.
The tribunal was then told that Miss Cassidy could be seen going under a checkout till and, when she stood up, appeared to be eating something.
Miss Cassidy was then investigated for taking an item from the store without paying for it.
She later admitted giving the chocolate to a customer's child and eating one herself - but said she thought the opened multi-pack of Twirls belonged to another member of staff.
Miss Cassidy said “we're always eating each other's food” and “it's not uncommon for sweets to be left at tills”.
She added that if she had known the packet belonged to the store, she would have paid for it. Miss Cassidy was fired for theft and later sued the supermarket.
The subsequent tribunal ruled the incident was not properly investigated and Miss Cassidy was unfairly dismissed.
The tribunal said: "Miss Cassidy argues there was no reasonable basis on which Iceland could have formed a belief that she knew the items in question were the property of the company, and therefore guilty of theft.
"The item did not appear to be stock: the packet was open and sweets were missing from the packet; it had not been half priced; it was not on a shelf or a topper; or hanging up with other stock.
"[It was] not established that Miss Cassidy knew the items were stock, and it was not reasonable to assume Miss Cassidy knew or ought to have known the items were stock."
The tribunal heard Iceland had a policy for employees buying items during their shift which included getting the receipt signed for by a manager.
The policy also says that once the items are bought, they must be removed from the store's premises or kept in an area of the shop that had been approved by the manager.
