Wife sacked by chef husband after she caught his affair on CCTV wins huge £10,000 payout
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A cheating husband who sacked his wife after she caught his illicit relationship with an employee on CCTV was ordered to pay up almost £10,000 in compensation. Jacqueline Herling sued her husband after catching him in the act on CCTV with the sous-chef of a pub the pair worked at. The mum-of-two confronted spouse Stefan and said in a heated row that she "would not set foot in the pub again", reducing her work to "occasional duties", an employment tribunal heard.
For the next four months, her salary was paid to her as normal, until her head chef husband issued her with a p45 without telling her. Mrs Herling has since been awarded £9,676 after successfully suing her ex-partner of 19 years - and the family company that owned the pub - for unfair and wrongful dismissal, unauthorised pay deductions and victimisation.
The tribunal, held in Manchester, heard that Mrs Herling started working part-time behind the bar at The Beehive Inn in Combs, Derbyshire, in 2003. The pair got together in 2005, had their first child in 2007 and married the following year before moving into a property above the pub and running it together, with Mrs Herling paid a "nominal" tax-free salary of £9,000 a year.
"On 30 May 2022, [she] confronted [Mr Herling] because she had discovered he had been having an affair with the sous-chef," the tribunal was told. [He] initially denied it, until [she] explained that she had seen CCTV footage. There was a row. The gist of what was said by [Mrs Herling] was that she wanted nothing more to do with the pub and that she would not set foot in the pub again.
