The Description Of The Complainant That I Fully Expected...

A fire service worker has won an unfair dismissal case after he was sacked for 'assaulting' a female shopper at Tesco who pushed to the front of the self-checkout queue. London Fire Brigade's Ryan Shearwood was getting his lunch from Tesco when he got into a bust-up with another customer, a tribunal heard. Mr Shearwood, a mechanic with the fire service, was waiting by the self-checkout tills when he called the woman out for skipping the queue.

Good for him! But no good deed goes unpunished, I guess… 

There was an altercation and the woman claimed she was 'shoved to the ground' by Mr Shearwood, it was heard. The woman later complained to the London Fire Brigade, claiming she was 'physically assaulted' by Mr Shearwood during the lunchtime row. Mr Shearwood argued he did not shove her and said all he did was simply extend his elbow to the side to 'defend' himself from being 'barged out of the way'. Mr Shearwood, a fire hydrant technician, was fired for misconduct after the fire service investigated the incident and concluded he had assaulted her.

Wait, what skills do the Fire Brigade have to investigate anything other than arson? And why weren’t the police involved? 

There was a lack of CCTV footage because Tesco would not release it unless there was a police investigation, and it was then destroyed after 30 days.

Seems the complainant went straight to the FB and none of them said, ‘Wait, let’s see if there’s a case to answer before firing him’ As I’m reading this, I’m thinking there can only be one possible reason for this sort of overreach…

'He is an extremely unreasonable person and even the staff were saying a simple apology or acknowledgement of the misunderstanding of the situation could've rectified it, but he refused to do so. '

Calling me names and escalating the situation further by loudly saying there was something wrong with me and I have "mental health issues" which I know was a predictable attempt to paint me as angry crazy black woman, which is not something that I take lightly at all.'

Aha! I love it when I’m proved right!  

The judge added the fire brigade did not carry out a fair investigation on procedural grounds.

You’re not kidding! 

A decision on compensation will be made at a later date, with a hearing listed to take place next month.

I hope the tribunal soaks the FB for every penny they can!