A Tauranga woman fired from her job for the inappropriate use of a company credit card was 'justifiably dismissed”, according to the Employment Relations Authority.

In the ERA summary, Kate Russell used her company credit to purchase $79 worth of KFC, buy an excessive amount of petrol and make two cash withdrawals.

Kate was employed as the sales manager at Katikati based company Triodent Limited.

She lodged a complaint with the Employment Relations Authority in September last year after being dismissed from Triodent in June 2009.

Triodent's CEO, Simon McDonald, says he first became aware of concerns regarding the use of Kate's company credit card in early 2009.

He first dismissed these concerns as unfounded, but the company's accounts department continued to investigate.

As a result of this investigation and subsequent enquires, a number of discrepancies were identified in Kate's credit card use.

Records show she used the credit card on October 7, 2008, to buy $79 worth of KFC, which included 30 pieces of chicken, four mega chips, two mega potato and gravy, two mega coleslaw and three 1.5L bottles of fizzy drink.

Kate told Triodent management the KFC was purchased for its night shift staff, which she was travelling back to visit that night.

According to the company's management, the one employee who may have been on duty in the early evening that night was on annual leave and the three staff who commenced work later that evening recall seeing no KFC.

Triodent also highlighted discrepancies in the amount of petrol purchased on Kate's company credit card and the fuel capacity of the company car allocated to her.

Kate's explanation to management was that she filled her car and additional petrol cans because she feared the company car might run out of fuel when she did not have the credit card.

The Employment Relations Authority's James Wilson ruled that Triodent carried out a full and fair investigation into the issue before finally dismissing Kate.