A train worker has been dismissed after serving first-class passengers sausage rolls that he had retrieved from a bin on a London North Eastern Railway (LNER) service. Peter Duffy was accused of taking the pastries from a kitchen bin before reheating and plating them for unsuspecting customers.
The incident occurred on a train departing from York on 7 May 2023. Two first-class passengers had requested sausage rolls, but the crew member claimed none were available. Another staff member became suspicious after being told the rolls had been thrown away, yet the kitchen bin was later found empty.
CCTV footage later showed Mr Duffy retrieving the food items from the bin in the presence of a colleague. The colleague denied witnessing the act, claiming they were laughing because she had farted, but an employment tribunal deemed her evidence unreliable and self-serving.
At an investigatory meeting, Mr Duffy said he had 'gone too far for the customer' and that the sausage rolls were wrapped in foil. He cited anxiety and depression, and a union representative mentioned a condition called transient global amnesia, a temporary short-term memory loss.
LNER dismissed Mr Duffy for gross misconduct in July 2023. He subsequently claimed unfair dismissal and disability discrimination at a tribunal in Newcastle in August 2025, but both complaints were dismissed. The tribunal judge ruled that LNER had acted reasonably and that the misconduct was not linked to his disability.
