Evan Williams was Technical Director at Leeds United FC and earned £200k p.a. plus benefits. He was to be made redundant with one year's notice from 23 July 2013 after Leeds went into administration. However, on 30 July 2013 he was summarily dismissed for gross misconduct. During that week the club found that Mr Williams had (in 2008) forwarded emails with pornographic content to two football colleagues at other clubs and also to a junior female employee.
Notwithstanding the length of time involved, the claimant was a senior employee who had potentially exposed the club to a sexual harassment claim. There was no evidence that the club knew about the offence before giving the claimant his original notice. They were entitled to rely on the offence as justifying summary dismissal and the claimant was not, therefore, entitled to damages to cover lost earnings during the notice period.
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2015/376.html
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