Businessman racially discriminated by wife who made Australia rant, tribunal rules

An Australian businessman has been awarded a payout of more than £100,000 after winning a racial discrimination case against his British wife who said she hated his country's "mentality", a tribunal has ruled. Duncan Bendall took his wife, Fiona, and their company The Female Social Network (TFSN) to an employment tribunal claiming he was discriminated against because he is a man and due to his nationality when he was pushed out of the firm. He also claimed unfair dismissal after she ousted him following the breakdown of their marriage. An employment judge awarded him more than £100,000 for race discrimination and unfair dismissal, but rejected his claims he was fired due to his gender. The tribunal heard Mr Bendall received an email from his wife three months before he was sacked in August last year in which she said: "I hate Australian mentality and you have it [in] droves just sh**…And DO NOT say you are a founder in MY business MY efforts ever again You Leech - you don't even believe in women or have ever stuck your neck out." Mr Bendall claimed he was dismissed as a result of his gender and nationality, and told the panel his wife "kept treating Australia as an inferior race" despite the couple living there for 15 years. He told the hearing: "It just made me feel small and like she was putting me down. It seemed she was only saying all this because now she was back in England. "The board had clearly chosen to back an English female and remove an Australian male." The tribunal heard Mr Bendall and his ex-wife, 42, set up a company called Bendalls in Australia in 2004, before setting up The Female Social Network in 2016. It then became a global company and the couple have been pictured with Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York at the UK launch last June.

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