A hotel firm sacked a worker at the beginning of last year’s lockdown and went on to claim furlough payments in his name, a tribunal has heard.

Sanderling Enterprise Ltd, which runs a string of hotels including Glasgow’s Tartan Lodge and Motel Air, dismissed Yuriy Bubulchuk on April 10 but went on to claim on his behalf under the Covid-19 Job Retention Scheme.

The issue only came to light when the handyman, originally from Russia, received a letter from HM Revenue and Customs detailing the claims.

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Mr Bubulchuk took his case to an employment tribunal where he was awarded more than £2,300 for unlawful deduction of wages.

Employment judge Alexander Kemp said he would also consider issuing the firm with an extra financial penalty.

In his judgment on the case, he said: “I have considered the actions by [Sanderling Enterprise], particularly what appears to be a failure to pass on to him furlough payments received from HR Government, and proposing a date of termination on a P45 which was before those payments ceased, may be in breach of the rights of the claimant and have one or more aggravating features such that a penalty under section 12A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 might fall to be imposed.

“That penalty can be one half of the award made, which in this case totals £2,315.75, such that a penalty of up to £1,157.87 may be considered.”

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The tribunal heard that Mr Bubulchuk began working with the firm in September 2019, and received a telephone call from his boss Kamran Khan on April 10 the following year telling him that he was dismissed.

The following month, the worker received a letter from HMRC detailing that the business had received furlough payments on his behalf between April 10 and May 1.

Judge Kemp ruled that, as the company was still claiming payments on his behalf, Mr Bubulchuk had not been dismissed on April 10 and was entitled to be paid the sums owed to him.

A HMRC spokesman refused to confirm or deny that the firm was being investigated for a possible fraud on the Job Retention Scheme. He added: “The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has provided a lifeline to millions of people across the UK and fraudulent claims are unacceptable.

“It is taxpayers’ money and fraud limits our ability to support people.”