Train worker sacked after passengers served sausage rolls taken from bin said he’d ‘gone too far for the customer’

A train worker has been sacked after first class passengers were served sausage rolls taken from a bin.

Peter Duffy, who was an employee for London North Eastern Railway (LNER), was accused of preparing sausage rolls "retrieved from a bin" for first-class passengers, which a colleague then served.

The incident was reported by another train crew member, who overheard laughter from the kitchen before service and later noted the bin was empty, despite being told earlier that no sausage rolls were available as they had been thrown away.

Mr Duffy claimed he had "gone too far for the customer".

On May 7 2023, Mr Duffy and a fellow train crew member were working onboard an LNER service departing York, when two passengers in first class requested sausage rolls.

The colleague who reported concerns said: “Myself and a host from standard class had been in the kitchen to get ourselves food when the host who was cooking told us the sausage rolls had just gone in the bin.”

Later, the member of staff reported hearing “lots of laughing” from inside the kitchen where Mr Duffy and his colleague were based, before reminding them a passenger was sat nearby.

They added: “A couple of minutes later one of the hosts from first class took the sausage rolls to Coach K.

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“After I had finished my food I took my rubbish to the bin in the kitchen and this is when noticed the bins were empty and there were no sausage rolls in the bin.”

The member of staff claimed Mr Duffy had retrieved the food from a bin before plating and reheating them.

His colleague from the kitchen was then said to have served the food to the customers sitting in first class.

Mr Duffy was told that CCTV footage had been retrieved and appeared to show that items of food that were disposed of in a bin had been retrieved by him in the presence of his colleague.

The footage suggested the food was then plated and re-heated by Mr Duffy and subsequently served to customers by his colleague.

Both were suspended by the train company pending an investigation into the alleged breach of food hygiene standards.

At an investigatory meeting on May 17 2023, Mr Duffy said he was “a person who goes over and beyond for the customer”.

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“I clearly took them out as there were none left for people in first class but they were wrapped in foil,” he said.

“We had totally ran out, I have just gone too far for the customer in my mind.”

He said he suffered from anxiety and depression, was on medication and had been stressed with work but added: “That was me trying to do the best for the customer which I am well known for.”

A union representative present at the investigation said Mr Duffy “had suffered from a recognised condition that day, known as transient global amnesia”.

Transient global amnesia is a sudden, temporary interruption of short-term memory.

Mr Duffy’s colleague denied seeing him take the sausage rolls out of the bin and said they were laughing because she had passed wind but the tribunal found her evidence was unreliable as was likely to be self-serving.

Mr Duffy was found to have committed gross misconduct and was dismissed in July 2023.

He claimed unfair dismissal and discrimination at a tribunal in Newcastle in August 2025 but both complaints were dismissed.

In reasons published on Wednesday to support the judgment, the tribunal judge said LNER had acted reasonably in deciding to dismiss Mr Duffy and the actions which prompted his dismissal were not something that arose in consequence of his disability.