Scottish hotelier hit with £42,000 bill after losing unfair dismissal case

09 February 2009
Scottish hotelier hit with £42,000 bill after losing unfair dismissal case

The owner of a Scottish hotel must pay his manager £42,000 compensation after falsely blaming him for gambling debts he'd personally run up, a court has ruled.

An employment tribunal in Glasgow heard that Luigi Martalo, owner of the Bothwell Bridge hotel in Hamilton, wrongly sacked banqueting and restaurant Manager Luigi Gustinelli over a gambling debt.

Evidence was given that Martalo had dismissed Gustinelli claiming that he had run up £16,000 in casino debts.

But Gustinelli in turn gave evidence that the debt was in fact Martalo's responsibility and that he had been wrongly blamed.

He explained that Mrs Martalo strongly disapproved of gambling and that Martalo had attempted to pass the blame for the debt to Gustinelli.

Both men were regular visitors to casinos in Glasgow where they would gamble large sums of money, the tribunal was told.

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By Andrew Smith

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