Upholding his claims, Employment Judge Matthew Hunt said: ‘All parties appreciated what a prank was. Placing a colleague into a state of shock as you suggest could have serious implications to and to the public and the travelling public.’Īfter an unsuccessful appeal against his dismissal, Mr Richardson took the company to the tribunal claiming unfair and wrongful dismissal.

He was told: ‘Your intention was to shock. ‘After telling him once already, it’s horrible, I don’t expect to come to work and there be a tarantula skin in my pigeon hole, I really don’t like them and I shouldn’t have to deal with that.’Īt a disciplinary meeting in September Mr Richardson offered his ‘sincere apologies’ to Driver A, but was sacked for gross misconduct after the company concluded he was guilty of bullying. ‘He thought it would be a joke and its only a spider… I really don’t like spiders and had to ask friends at work if they can remove it.Īsked if she felt ‘intimidated, bullied or harassed’, Driver A responded: ‘All the above. ‘I thought the situation was dealt with…but finding the snake skin has made me feel apprehensive and I have felt my concentration has been off the last few days,’ she told the subsequent investigation. She also later described the exchange as ‘over the top banter,’ the hearing was told, but the next month when he placed a snakeskin in her pigeonhole she reported him to her boss. The hearing was told Mr Richardson believed the tone of this conversation had been ‘jokey’, that being called a ‘twat’ was ‘playful’ and he had not understood Driver A’s ‘genuine upset’. He suggested he might do something similar with a snakeskin and she replied that she would report him. Mr Richardson raised the prank when he next met Driver A and she called him a ‘f****** twat’. Mr Richardson left the exoskeleton of a tarantula in his colleague’s pigeonhole (Picture: NPS/Abby Wines)

Tarantula live dealer