The Claimant was summarily dismissed following a breakdown of relations with the Respondent. He claimed automatic unfair dismissal in the ET, and he also brought a private prosecution alleging fraud. The Claimant obtained disclosure of a number of documents as part of the criminal proceedings, but gave an undertaking that he would not use those documents in his employment claim. The Claimant applied for a stay of the ET proceedings, on the basis that he was unable to disclose the documents in question, but his application was refused. The Claimant appealed.

The EAT held that the ET had failed to take account of the particular unusual problem faced by the Claimant in this case, namely that he was subject to an undertaking given to the Crown Court that prevented him not only from disclosing documents relevant to his employment claim, but also from providing an explanation of the relevance of those documents. Accordingly, the application for a stay should be remitted to the ET to be dealt with at the next hearing.