Luxury car dealer loses employment tribunal after claim against Sytner thrown out – Car Dealer Magazine

A luxury car dealer who left his job after questions were raised about his performance has lost an employment tribunal against Sytner.

Kenneth Purdon resigned from his position as sales manager at Bentley Edinburgh in 2022 after a series of disagreements with bosses.

His performance had come under scrutiny after a series of poor buying decisions, including an ‘unsuitable’ orange Benteyga which took six months to move, before being sold at a loss of £13,500.

of MailOnline reports that the plaintiff also bought a car with a bright yellow body and tried to sell another that had “a visible stone chip” in the paint.

He was also accused of advertising vehicles that were dirty or poorly displayed, leading to a ‘heated’ meeting with franchise director Robert Berry in August 2022.

Purdon resigned shortly afterwards and later brought a claim for constructive unfair dismissal against Sytner.

Now, after a full hearing, the claim has been dismissed by Employment Judge Robert King.

The court heard Purdon joined the retailer as a sales executive in 2018 before being promoted to sales manager two years later.

The position entitled him to a basic salary of £32,500 plus benefits and things got off to a good start when the dealer won Bentley Retailer of the Year for the first cars in 2021.

However, when the business failed to meet targets the following year, it wasn’t long before the finger of blame began to be pointed at Purdon.

The judge heard that when Berry told the sales manager his performance was not up to par, the claimant simply ‘smiled’, causing the boss to become upset.

A general sales manager – Andy Canning – was later appointed by Sytner to act as a “second pair of eyes” on the transactions, amid concerns about Purdon’s judgement.

However, the claimant said there had been a ‘loss of trust and confidence’ and left the job shortly afterwards.

“The applicant made some mistakes”

In his submissions, Purdon claimed that “everything he had built at Bentley Edinburgh was taken from him” and that Berry had threatened to “run him out the door”.

After hearing all the evidence, Judge King found Berry was ‘right’ to speak ‘forcefully’ and dismissed Purdon’s claims.

The judgment stated: ‘The basic issue of the plaintiff with the defendant was that he was managed nothing.

“However, his opinion of its performance and capabilities was not substantiated by objective evidence showing that Bentley Edinburgh did not underperform in relation to the sale of used cars.

“The plaintiff had made some mistakes. He had bought in part exchange a number of cars which he should have known would be difficult to sell and which the respondent had indeed struggled to sell.

“He had failed to market the cars properly on the defendant’s website. He had made mistakes in managing the stock and preparing it to sell. This was the context in which the decision was made to appoint Mr. Canning as general sales manager.’

He added: “It was clear from the evidence that Bentley Edinburgh had significantly under-performed throughout 2022 in the used car sales for which the claimant was responsible.

“It had failed to meet its budgets and targets for used car sales, underperformed compared to the previous year’s performance and underperformed compared to other Bentley dealers in the UK.

“Despite his evidence to the contrary, there was clear objective evidence that the plaintiff’s performance in respect of used car sales during 2022 was unacceptably poor in material terms. He had made poor decisions about buying cars that had become “emission cars” and were sold at a loss.

“He had made mistakes when selling cars. He had spent the surplus on commission payments to brokers. These failures in its performance had materially affected the sales performance of the dealers in used car sales.

“The respondent was entitled to take steps to manage the decline in its performance and trading.”

Since leaving his job, Purdon has been unable to find new work and has applied for Universal Credit.

The full decision can be found here here.