A financier who charged £11,700 to his corporate credit card while on holiday after his wallet was stolen has been awarded £25,000 in damages.
Simon Price was sacked from his job as a managing director at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for using his American Express card to pay his bill at the five-star Hotel Cipriani in Venice.
The 52-year-old, who was on holiday with his daughter in August 2023, had no other means of settling the bill at the time but promptly repaid the amount through the company’s ‘reverse expenses’ system when he returned.
He won his wrongful dismissal claim against CPPIB after an employment tribunal ruled his bosses simply “did not approve of the amounts the claimant was spending”.
The hearing in central London was told Mr Price had been on a month-long holiday, visiting New York and Venice with his daughter before travelling to Albania with his partner, when his personal bank cards was stolen in New York. He continued the trip using his company card since the new cards he had ordered were being sent to his home address.
Price, who had been working for the global investment firm since October 2022, also used the company card to pay for a flight to New York for his daughter, who was under 18 and in Pennsylvania at the time.
“He had to arrange and pay for a replacement flight. His corporate credit card had been kept separately from his other cards in his work bag and had not been stolen. He was aware of a mechanism to file ‘reverse expenses’ and therefore used the corporate credit card with the intention to pay back any sums charged to that card for personal expenses,” the tribunal was told.
On his return from holiday, Price submitted the paperwork for his expenditure to be deducted from his salary but after being told all was resolved in December 2023, an internal query was then raised about the high value of the expenses.
In January 2024, when questioned about his trip to Albania, Price had lied and said he had travelled there with his daughter because he did not want to share personal information about his relationship.
However, the tribunal ruled Price had not acted dishonestly relating to the use of the company card, finding: “it is not for the respondent to suggest that he should stay at a more modest hotel in Venice” and that he “is a high earner and is entitled to spend what was, ultimately, his money as he saw fit”.
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