A Sydney shop owner has been found guilty of intimidating a jury member in a significant court case involving vintage goods.

A vintage clothing shop in Sydney has recently been found guilty of threatening an employee who took time off work to serve on a jury for a high-profile murder trial. This groundbreaking ruling was described by Magistrate Scott Nash as "unprecedented" since it was the first case of its kind to be brought to court. The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous for legal reasons, was summoned to serve on a NSW Supreme Court jury from February to April 2023.

During the eight-week trial, the woman had been scheduled to work three out of every four weekends at the shop located in the city's inner-west. However, the trial judge advised her to take weekends off in order to process the violent and emotionally taxing case. Despite this, her employer was found guilty in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court of two charges for threatening an employee on jury duty by either altering their employment or causing them harm.

Magistrate Nash emphasized that such actions by the employer were a blatant violation of the Jury Act and were completely unacceptable. Despite receiving two letters from the judge stating that the woman was to have weekends off, the shop's boss still emailed her to inform her that she had breached company policy by not fulfilling her regular work hours. The woman was then given a letter informing her of a disciplinary hearing where she faced the possibility of either a warning or termination.

Feeling unfairly punished, the woman made the difficult decision to resign from her job. In an earlier hearing, the shop's lawyer argued that the woman would have had enough time to rest as she would have left court at 4pm on a Friday and returned to work at 10am on Saturday, which under the law, was considered adequate time for rest. However, the prosecution argued that the woman needed time off due to the mental exhaustion caused by serving on a difficult jury.

It is important to note that the punishment for threatening an employee called for jury duty can be severe, with a fine of up to $22,000 and a maximum of 12 months in prison. The sentencing for this case is scheduled to take place on November 19.

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