Gosh, I Wonder Why She Didn’t Turn Up To Fight Her Corner?

A hairdresser has failed in a bid to force her former employers to pay her wages – while she was in jail.

Ummmm….

Miss Atkins' claims of constructive dismissal were thrown out by chairman Victoria Wallace on Tuesday at Ashford Employment Tribunal after she failed to turn up for the hearing, despite staff trying to contact her.

Ah. Not because they were patently absurd, then? Oh, well…

In written statements made to the tribunal, both Miss Atkins and her-ex boss said she took annual leave to attend her trial in December last year.

When she was found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court, Judge Adele Williams said Atkins had perpetrated a "dreadful crime".

But documents submitted to the tribunal show that Miss Atkins claimed her employer made assurances her job was safe before she was convicted.

Why would an employer say such a thing?

"I came home on June 27, 2012, and rang Mrs McDonald to ask if I could come back to work and the reply to that was 'no'."

Miss Atkins claimed in her statement she was thus owed backdated salary for the days missed while she was in jail.

She said: "I would like nine months' worth of wages, which is how long I was in prison for – as I thought I still had a job – which comes to £7,000."

Yes, I'm sure you would. I’d like a pony.

But Mrs McDonald said there was no agreement to keep a job open and that her business was stigmatised by her worker's conviction.

And, since ‘This Is Kent’ hasn't seen fit to mention what it was she was convicted of, we have to turn to Google (and thereafter ‘The Mirror’) for the details:

“My heart was pounding,” says Wayne.

“I was thinking maybe I was to be kept in custody until my trial. I asked the ¬policeman guarding me, he said he didn't know.

“Half an hour went by. Then another officer came down. He told me I was being released without charge because new evidence had come to light. As it sank in the relief swept over me.

“I went home to hugs from my ¬family. That evening an officer called me to explain what had happened.

"Police had learned that the night before Kelly had left her handbag in a pub and it had been handed in to a member of staff. It was the bag she said I’d stolen.

“Apparently, she’d reported being mugged for her handbag before she’d added that she’d also been raped.

"That was why the police were fairly sure she was lying. Days later I was told she’d been charged with perverting the course of justice, which she denied.”

Yup, she’s a false rape claimant. And false mugging claimant into the bargain. Failing at both  luckily enough  No real surprise she didn't try to shoot for ‘best of three’ then….

And I wonder who encouraged her claim to the Employment Tribunal?