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Julian Oxborough had worked at the store for more than 10 years before being dismissed for gross misconduct
A Lidl employee was dismissed after consuming a 17p bottle of water because he felt “dehydrated” while working at the checkout, as revealed in a tribunal. Julian Oxborough had been employed at Lidl’s Wincanton store in Somerset for over 10 years before his termination.
An employment tribunal subsequently rejected his claim for unfair dismissal. On July 19, 2024, Mr Oxborough assisted a customer at the till who wished to purchase a bottle of water that had been removed from a multipack and lacked a barcode.
The customer exchanged the multipack bottle for one that had a barcode and left the old bottle at the checkout. The tribunal learned that later that day, Mr Oxborough drank from the bottle and refilled his own drink while continuing to serve customers.
The following day, a store manager discovered the bottle next to the checkout and suspected it may have been consumed in breach of store policy. After reviewing CCTV footage, Mr Oxborough was called to a meeting and informed that he was being suspended pending an investigation into allegations of gross misconduct.
During the investigation, Mr Oxborough explained that he had become dehydrated during his shift and was concerned about his health, noting that he had not drunk from his own bottle because he had made his squash too strong. He believed the multipack bottle could be considered discarded, as he had observed single bottles of water in the canteen without receipts.
Asked if he paid for the water, Mr Oxborough said: “No, I think I may have forgot or can’t actually remember taking it”. He also said that he was in a hurry at the end of the shift and forgot to get the water written off.
He told the investigation he had no intention of being dishonest, though he knew it was wrong afterwards. The tribunal heard Mr Oxborough thought his dismissal was “a huge overreaction”.
Area manager Karina Moon, who was the disciplinary officer, told the hearing that he had been inconsistent in his explanation of whether he had intended to purchase the water or get it written off, and he had not explained why he had not gone to get tap water instead of drinking the multi-pack bottle.
Ms Moon said that Mr Oxborough had four days after the day of the incident to come forward, but he had not. She concluded that Mr Oxborough had known the correct procedures and that there was no way to be assured that the behaviour would not be repeated, so there was no suitable alternative to dismissal.
She confirmed that the claimant was therefore being summarily dismissed for gross misconduct. Mr Oxborough told the tribunal that he had not intended to be dishonest, and he was tired and stressed, hot and thirsty, unwell, worried about getting Covid from his partner, and in a hurry to leave at the end of his shift because he had to catch a bus.
At a hearing in Southampton in October 2025, Employment Judge Yallop upheld Lidl’s decision and dismissed Mr Oxborough’s claims, including unfair dismissal.
A spokesperson for Lidl told the Press Association: “We would never take the decision to dismiss a long-serving colleague lightly, and the tribunal has upheld that our actions were fair and followed a thorough process. As a retailer, maintaining a consistent zero-tolerance approach to the consumption of unpaid stock is essential to our operations and ensures that clear rules are followed by everyone across the business.”
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