Peter Duffy has lost his claim for unfair dismissal against LNER after he was found to have committed gross misconduct after serving the snacks he found in a bin
A train worker has been fired after first class passengers were served sausage rolls taken from a bin on board.
Peter Duffy, who had worked for LNER for a number of years , was accused of preparing the snacks he had “retrieved from a bin” which were then taken to hungry travellers by a colleague. Mr Duffy claimed he had simply “gone too far for the customer” after attempting to find a solution to the request when stock had been thrown out.
Another member of the crew reported hearing laughter from the train’s kitchen before the food was served. They made a complaint after then noticing the bin was empty when the team had been told no sausage rolls were available as they had all been discarded.
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Mr Duffy and a colleague were working onboard an LNER service departing York, when two passengers in first class requested sausage rolls in May 2023. The colleague who reported concerns told a tribunal: “Myself and a host from standard class had been in the kitchen to get ourselves food when the host who was cooking told us the sausage rolls had just gone in the bin.”
Later, the member of staff reported hearing “lots of laughing” from inside the kitchen where Mr Duffy and his colleague were based, before reminding them a passenger was sat nearby. They added: “A couple of minutes later one of the hosts from first class took the sausage rolls to Coach K.
“After I had finished my food I took my rubbish to the bin in the kitchen and this is when I noticed the bins were empty and there were no sausage rolls in the bin.” The member of staff claimed Mr Duffy had retrieved the food from a bin before plating and reheating them.
His colleague from the kitchen was then said to have served the food to the customers sitting in first class. Mr Duffy was told that CCTV footage had been retrieved and appeared to show that items of food that were disposed of in a bin had been retrieved by him in the presence of his colleague.
The footage suggested the food was then plated and re-heated by Mr Duffy and subsequently served to customers by his colleague. Both were suspended by the train company pending an investigation into the alleged breach of food hygiene standards. At an investigatory meeting on May 17 2023, Mr Duffy said he was “a person who goes over and beyond” for the customer.
“I clearly took them out as there were none left for people in first class but they were wrapped in foil,” he said. “We had totally ran out, I have just gone too far for the customer in my mind.” He said he suffered from anxiety and depression, was on medication and had been stressed with work but added: “That was me trying to do the best for the customer which I am well known for.”
A union representative present at the investigation said Mr Duffy “had suffered from a recognised condition that day, known as transient global amnesia”. Transient global amnesia is a sudden, temporary interruption of short-term memory.
Mr Duffy’s colleague denied seeing him take the sausage rolls out of the bin and said they were laughing because she had passed wind but the tribunal found her evidence was unreliable as was likely to be self-serving. Mr Duffy was found to have committed gross misconduct and was dismissed in July 2023. He claimed unfair dismissal and discrimination at a tribunal in Newcastle in August 2025 but both complaints were dismissed.
In reasons now published to support the judgment, the tribunal judge said LNER had acted reasonably in deciding to dismiss Mr Duffy and the actions which prompted his dismissal were not something that arose in consequence of his disability. An LNER spokesperson told the Mirror: “The welfare and safety of our customers is our highest priority. This incident fell well short of our usual high standards and action was taken immediately.”
