A GAMEKEEPER awarded #14,350 compensation for being unfairly dismissed
was yesterday evicted from his house on a Highland estate.
Mr George Dey, a father of two, had to move with his family from the
house where they had lived for 18 years on Strathspey Estates, near
Grantown-on-Spey.
They are now in accommodation for the homeless awaiting a council
house.
Mr Dey, 45, was sacked from his post as head deerstalker -- which he
had held for 21 years with the Earl of Seafield and his son, Viscount
Reidhaven -- for slashing a tyre on a suspected poacher's van.
He took his case to an industrial tribunal, which ruled in December
that he had been unfairly dismissed and awarded him cash compensation.
But he was not reinstated and this month the estate won a court order
to evict him from his tied house.
The Deys had to be out of their house at Balnacruie, by Boat of
Garten, Inverness-shire, by noon yesterday.
Mr Dey, who has been unemployed for more than a year since his
dismissal, claimed that he had been exonerated by the tribunal verdict
and that his former estate bosses had been ''spiteful''.
He said: ''I have been in a tied house and they say they need it for
another employee -- but at the same time they are renting out properties
not a mile from here.''
Mr Dey, his wife Mary and grown-up children Brian and Morag, decided
not to try to fight the eviction because of the potential cost.
''We are really just past caring now. I knew this was going to happen
after going to the tribunal because things had gone too far.
''We are moving into Badenoch House for the homeless in Kingussie but
I am quite confident of eventually getting a council house.
''The family doesn't want to move away from this area, and this house
was the only one the kids ever knew.''
He added: ''I have not really got anything lined up as far as work is
concerned. But I wouldn't go to a job with a tied house . . . ''
The industrial tribunal held in Inverness heard that Mr Dey slashed a
tyre on a van parked on the estate because he was frustrated with
alleged poachers.
No-one from Strathspey Estates was available for comment
yesterday.
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