Hero Grandpa Fired For Claiming Sick Leave While on Vacation and Saving Kids From Shark [VIDEO]
A British man who dragged a shark away from children with his hands at a beach in Australia was fired for lying about being sick at the time he was on a trip overseas.
Paul Marshallsea made the news in January for dragging a 6-foot shark back to sea, as it swam in shallow waters near a beach full of children.
His heroic actions were caught on camera and the video went viral.
The video was seen by his workplace at a British charity the Pant & Dowlais Boys & Girls Club that saw Marshallsea was on vacation rather than being on sick leave as he had previously claimed, according to Yahoo News.
The father-of-three was not the only one implicated in the incident as his 56-year-old wife, who also worked for the charity, was also fired for claiming sick leave during her vacation.
Marshallsea's workplace dismissed him on the grounds that he failed to let his employers know that he was going on a trip and for a breach of trust for lying about being sick after taking the days off.
He received a series of letter from the charity that talked about his apparent lie, according to The Independent.
"Whilst unfit to work, you were well enough to travel to Australia," one of the letters stated, citing recent news footage of his heroic actions in Queensland. "You allegedly grabbed a shark by the tail and narrowly missed being bitten by quickly jumping out of the way; the photographs and footage appearing in newspapers and television broadcasts."
Another letter addressed that the charity no longer trusted Marshallsea to do his job stating that "dismissal is the only course of action we can recommend."
Marshallsea was quoted by The Telegraph stating how disgusted he is over the situation.
"If I hadn't gone in to save the kids on that beach that day my wife and I would still have a job," Marshallsea said, adding that he and his wife had worked for the charity for around 10 years. "You think being in charge and running a children's charity, they would have patted me on the back and congratulated me."
