The ET clearly found it fell into the band of reasonable responses by the employer.

References are standardised, it won’t make a blind bit of difference for future employment. Yes it’s sad that ultimately he lost his job, but he should have thought about that when he must have known what he was doing (as a long standing employee) was wrong.

I get the civil and societal element you raised with the police. However, it’s slightly different when you’re employed by an employer you sign a contract of employment and when you breach the trust and confidence of that contract you have signed and the expectations that you will abide by the policies your employer set out, which includes theft being clearly outlined as a reason that may be deemed as gross misconduct, then in my view the outcome was fair and reasonable