There's shock as Sir Alan sacks two hopefuls in a ruthless cull. But lawyer Christopher Davies says he had little choice.

Christopher Davies, professional support lawyer, Halliwells

The very vocal, bleep, bleep, Lee McQueen and ultra confident 'best salesperson in Europe' Jennifer McGuire took the lead roles in this week’s project.

Purchasing a list of specific items at the lowest cost did not sound the hardest of tasks even though the teams would have to haggle with the renowned market traders of Marrakesh. 

The shopping list in hand, Jennifer McGuire rushed out to get into the market first and did not take time to do any research. Unfortunately her eagerness backfired when she then started making purchases without paying any attention to the details in the shopping list. The mistakes later led to her team losing by a large margin to the better prepared members of Lee’s team.

In the boardroom it was clear that Jennifer’s team had been guilty of a number of huge mistakes. There had been a complete lack of planning or attention to detail; the team manager had lost control over what people were doing; there had been a breakdown in team work between Claire and Alex, the whole team were guilty of a baffling ignorance of what was a Kosher chicken and most notably it was discovered that at least one member of the team had acted dishonestly in trying to bribe a shopkeeper to get one over on the other side. 

The result was that Jennifer McGuire and her team mate Jenny Celerier were fired. Clearly Jennifer as the team leader had been in the firing line. However the surprise firing of a second candidate on the night arose from some of the worst conduct that the show has yet seen. Sir Alan described the bribe incident as “dirty cheap sabotage”.

If a candidate fails at the task due to poor performance they are obviously at risk of being fired but if the candidate behaves in a dishonest manner, in this case by trying to financially bribe shop assistants to obstruct the other team, they have to be dismissed.

If an employee is dishonest or offers bribes to contacts to make their work look better it should be regarded as gross misconduct. The last thing an employer wants is a dishonest employee. The trust between the employer and employee is a key part of the working relationship and conduct is always a potentially fair ground for dismissal if the employer follows a reasonable procedure.

In the real workplace conduct dismissals will be subject to the statutory dismissal procedures in that the allegations have to be put in writing, the employee given the opportunity to respond to the allegations in a meeting and a right of appeal must be given following the decision. If the employer’s investigation has been adequate and there are reasonable grounds for belief in the employee’s guilt then it is likely that the conduct dismissal will be found to be fair.