The claimant, a long-serving youth worker for the respondent was dismissed for gross misconduct following an altercation between two young people in which the claimant had intervened. One of them had lost a tooth in a fight and the claimant gave him tissue to wipe blood while there was a trained first aider at the scene. The claimant was dismissed for failing to follow safeguarding and incident-reporting procedures, administering unauthorised first aid and failing to mention the lost tooth in his initial witness statement. The ET dismissed his unfair dismissal claim but he appealed and one ground was allowed to appeal, that of whether he had administered first aid.

HHJ James Tayler dismissed the appeal. The tribunal had impliedly treated the three allegations as a composite reason, so the appeal was not academic. The respondent was entitled to conclude that the claimant's actions, knowing youth A had lost a tooth while a first aider was present, amounted to unauthorised first aid and failure to secure proper treatment so the decision was not perverse.