A business owner who sacked his pregnant wife two days after she found his receipts for 'adult entertainment' has been ordered to pay her more than £15,000.
Financial consultant Nicole Ramsay was working for her then-husband Stephen's lawn care company when she confronted him over spending more than £500 on X-rated online services.
An employment tribunal heard the managing director responded by firing his 33-year-old wife who was seven months pregnant with the couple's fourth child at the time.
While heavily pregnant and desperate to claim Universal Credit to make ends meet, Nicole's payslips - a crucial part of the benefit-claiming process - were withheld from her by her former husband.
She was also sent abusive text and Whatsapp messages, had her house key and work phone taken from her and her car insurance stopped.
Now, Ms Ramsay has successfully sued the 40-year-old for marriage discrimination and won more than £15,000 in compensation from him.
Nicole Ramsay (above) was working for her then-husband Stephen Ramsay's lawn care company in Southend-on-Sea when she was sacked while pregnant with their fourth child for challenging him on his X-rated porn purchases
The tribunal, held in east London, heard Mrs Ramsay started working for her husband's lawncare business in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, as administrative manager and company secretary in August 2015.
The hearing was told Mrs Ramsay found out she was expecting the couple's fourth child in March 2019. This was a planned pregnancy, and the baby was due on November 2019.
However in September 2019, when she was 31 weeks pregnant, Mrs Ramsay questioned her husband over three receipts she had found.
The receipts were for £179.99 each, totalling £539.97, for online adult entertainment services and were all within a 23 hour period, the tribunal heard. Following the confrontation the couple agreed to separate.
The next day, however, Mrs Ramsay woke to discover her husband had taken her house key and sent her abusive texts and WhatsApp messages.
In one message, Mr Ramsay said: 'You are not needed, not like you did anything anyway... Why are you still working?
'I don't want you having anything to do with it anymore... I would rather fold my business than give you anything from them...
'After everything you have done over the past couple of years you don't deserve anything and if you try I will make sure I have nothing to give you.'
Throughout the day she still answered phone calls regarding the business in a professional manner, but was later sent more 'aggressive and inappropriate' messages from Mr Ramsay about the breakdown of the marriage.
The tribunal heard these messages were 'threatening and abusive'.
Stephen (left) spent more than £530 in less than 24 hours on X-rated adult entertainment. Two days
