‘Sleazy’ driver payout halved

’Double compensation’ appeal won

A “SLEAZY” former Toll delivery driver who slapped the bottom of an Eastlands Sanity worker and called her “juicy” has won an appeal against an order he pay her $45,000.

Frayne Higgins will now need to cough up only $22,500.

The drawn-out stoush drew to an end on Tuesday, after Mr Higgins won a Full Court of the Supreme Court of Tasmania appeal on just one of his 13 grounds – that his victim had already reached a $60,000 settlement with Toll.

But Mr Higgins still wasn’t happy with the reduced sum, standing up before Justice Michael Brett to proclaim that key evidence in the case was “false”.

Justice Brett refused to engage with him over the court’s decision, which set aside the original order of the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal of Tasmania.

The years-long feud dates back to 2013, when Mr Higgins was delivering stock to Eastlands Sanity, which has since closed down.

The employee lodged a complaint in 2017, alleging Mr Higgins would pop up between the racks and scare her, frequently ask whether she had a boyfriend, call her “juicy”, generally engage in “sleazy, intimidating and favouring behaviour towards her”, and on one occasion, slapped her bottom when she bent over to check stock he’d delivered.

Sanity lodged a complaint against Mr Higgins with Toll, which the Sanity employee wasn’t aware of at the time. Mr Higgins’ wife later called the store and demanded to speak with the employee about the complaint. The employee also received a letter from Mr Higgins’ lawyer making a $30,000 claim for defamation for economic loss he’d suffered, plus a written apology.

The employee, feeling “very upset”, did not return to work for some time because she felt intimated, asked her employer to drop the complaint, and ultimately resigned.

The tribunal found most of the employee’s sexual harassment allegations were true.

Mr Higgins was fired by Toll in 2017.

He appealed the tribunal’s decision in the Supreme Court in 2021, but his initial appeal was dismissed.

In the full court appeal, Justice Brett dismissed a number of Mr Higgins’ other contentions, including audio “doctoring” claims and that the tribunal member had been biased against men.

Mr Higgins won his appeal on the ground of “double compensation” – that the Sanity employee had already been compensated by Toll, and that this needed to be taken into account. Justice Brett noted Toll had paid the Sanity employee $60,000 in a settlement. He found the appropriate amount for Mr Higgins to pay, taking the settlement into account, would be half the sum arrived at by the tribunal – or $22,500.