Businessman fired pregnant wife who found porn receipts

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

Stephen Ramsay’s wife, Nicole, was a financial consultant at his lawn care firm when she confronted him for spending more than £500 on adult entertainment online.

An employment tribunal heard that 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 from him.

The tribunal in east London heard that Ms Ramsay started working for the company in Southend-on-sea, Essex, 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, totalling £539.97 and all within a 23-hour period.

The couple agreed to separate, but the following day she saw Mr Ramsay had taken her house key and sent her messages “full of abuse”, it was claimed.

Two days after the receipts were found, Ms Ramsay’s company fuel card was terminated by Mr Ramsay along with her work phone, followed soon by her contract and car insurance. Her monthly salary was then reduced during maternity leave from £1,500 to £1,250, totalling more than £10,000.

This “traumatic” experience coupled with the late stage of her pregnancy and bringing up three small children caused her to have medical issues.

Mike Hallen, the employment judge, 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.”