A London North Eastern Railway (LNER) worker has been dismissed after serving first-class passengers sausage rolls that he retrieved from a bin. Peter Duffy, a train host, admitted taking the pastries from a kitchen bin on a service departing from York on 7 May 2023.
The incident came to light when a colleague noticed the kitchen bin was empty, despite being told the sausage rolls had been thrown away. The colleague reported hearing 'lots of laughing' from the kitchen, where Mr Duffy was stationed. CCTV footage later showed Mr Duffy removing the items from the bin, plating them, and reheating them before they were served to unsuspecting first-class passengers.
At an investigatory meeting, Mr Duffy claimed he was 'a person who goes over and beyond for the customer' and that he 'clearly took them out as there were none left for people in first class but they were wrapped in foil'. He said he was suffering from anxiety and depression, and a union representative suggested he had experienced transient global amnesia, a temporary memory loss condition.
Mr Duffy's colleague denied seeing him take the sausage rolls from the bin, claiming they were laughing because she had farted. However, the tribunal found her evidence unreliable and likely self-serving. LNER dismissed Mr Duffy for gross misconduct in July 2023.
Mr Duffy subsequently brought claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination to an employment tribunal in Newcastle in August 2025. Both complaints were dismissed, with the judge ruling that LNER had acted reasonably and that Mr Duffy's actions were not a result of his disability.
