Businessman fired pregnant wife who found porn receipts

A business owner who fired his pregnant wife after she unearthed his receipts for pornography has been ordered to pay her more than £15,000 compensation.

An employment tribunal heard that Stephen Ramsay's former wife, Nicole, was a financial consultant at his lawn care firm in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, when she confronted him for spending more than £500 on adult entertainment.

Mr Ramsay, 40, the managing director, responded by firing his 33-year-old wife, who was pregnant with the couple's fourth child. Ms Ramsay has now successfully sued him for marriage discrimination and won more than £15,000 in compensation.

The tribunal in east London heard that Ms Ramsay started working for the company as an administrative manager and secretary in August 2015. In September 2019, while 31 weeks pregnant, Ms Ramsay questioned her husband over three receipts for porn she had found for £179.99 each all within a 23-hour period and totalling £539.97.

The couple agreed to separate, but it was claimed that the following day Mr Ramsay had taken her house key and sent her messages "full of abuse". Two days after the receipts were found, Mr Ramsay terminated Ms Ramsay's company fuel card and her work phone, then followed up by cancelling her contract and car insurance.

Her monthly salary during maternity leave was then reduced from £1,500 to £1,250. This "traumatic" experience, coupled with the late stage of her pregnancy, and bringing up three small children caused her to have medical issues.

The employment judge, Mike Hallen, said: "Ms Ramsay's mortgage was in arrears alongside many other bills that were unpaid due to her salary being slowly decreased and stopped, causing additional stress."

Mandy Peters Solicitors 

Lewisham