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The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has been criticised by a London judge after it sacked a “high earner” employee who put thousands of pounds in personal expenditure on a corporate credit card because his wallet was stolen.
In a case that highlights the potential pitfalls for employers and staff in the use of corporate cards, a UK-based managing director at the CPPIB, one of the world’s biggest pension fund managers, was dismissed for gross misconduct after he used his work card to pay for personal items, including a stay at a five-star hotel in Venice.
Simon Price, who worked in active equities, put £11,700 of charges on the American Express card, including British Airways flights to Albania, the Central London Employment Tribunal found.
But the tribunal said he did so only because his personal card had been stolen during a trip to New York in August 2023. Price said he intended — and initially received approval — to pay the company back under its system of “reverse expenses”.
After he was sacked he took the case to the employment tribunal, which awarded him £25,000 in damages, according to a filing published on Thursday.
The judge was critical of how CPPIB handled the case, finding it had pried into “sensitive and personal” matters during its inquiries.
Price’s manager had signed off on the reverse expense claim and did not seem to have had any concerns about it, Employment Judge Davidson found.
Price was told by the company that he could dispose of associated documentation and that a deduction for the sum would be made from the payroll.
But he was subsequently contacted by human resources in Canada, “querying the amount of the deduction and the reasons for it”, according to the tribunal.
The company discovered that the person he travelled with to Albania was not his daughter, as Price had initially stated, but his girlfriend.
When asked by a representative of the company about it, Price said “he did not like to talk about his divorce” and that his family life was “not something he wanted to share with someone he had never met”, according to the judgment.
Following the meeting, the company in January 2024 “took the decision to terminate the claimant’s employment for gross misconduct with immediate effect”.
In the ruling, the judge said: “I accept his evidence that he did not want to share information which he regarded as sensitive and personal . . . where the information itself had no significance.”
“He had repaid all the money in full and did not feel he wanted to go into the details of what he did and who he did it with.”
The company appears to “disapprove of the claimant’s lifestyle choices”, which was not relevant to whether he was in breach of contract, Judge Davidson said.
“It is not for the respondent to suggest that he should stay at a more modest hotel in Venice,” the judge said. “The claimant is a high earner and is entitled to spend what was, ultimately, his money as he saw fit.”
“There is no suggestion that he attempted to gain an advantage by using the corporate card,” Judge Davidson added.
CPPIB, which declined to comment on the case, handles pension assets for over 22mn Canadians with C$632bn (£352bn) under management, according to its latest annual report.
It opened its London office in 2008, where it employs almost 250 people. UK assets in its portfolio include stakes in student accommodation provider Unite Students and Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre.
Price could not be reached for comment.
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