Scumbag boss who tied his worker upside down to a crane and humiliated him in front of colleagues at a work Christmas party learns his fate in court
A window manufacturing supervisor has been fined $60,000 for pushing a worker who was hanging upside down from a crane at a Christmas party.
Steve Yousif, owner of Jaden Commercial Windows, was handed a hefty fine after being sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
The video shows Yousif punching and poking worker Ilyas Elharraz as he was suspended from the roof of a warehouse in December 2020.
Footage of the incident was shown to the court in November and showed the 27-year-old man repeatedly punching a shirtless Elharraz after tying his legs to a crane.
Steve Yousif (pictured left) was fined $60,000 for repeatedly slapping and poking a former employee while he was hanging from the ceiling of his company’s warehouse.
Other people could be heard laughing in the background as they performed the dangerous stunt, a video of which was later posted on social media.
Yesterday Judge Andrew Sim criticized Yousif’s behavior during his sentencing.
He called the act a “targeted… campaign of terror against two vulnerable workers.”
Yusif was not physically present at the sentencing, but appeared via video link.
Mr Elharraz, who was 23 at the time, quit his job at a window manufacturing company and brought a case against Victorian workplace safety agency WorkSafe.
He said Current case in 2021, he felt “like a piece of meat” when his former boss started beating him.
“It gave me nightmares,” Mr. Elharraz said. “I’m like a cow hanging upside down.”
Judge Sim said Yousif tormented Elharraz for more than two years and prevented him from attending TAFE.
He said Yusif humiliated him by “grabbing him by the neck” before throwing him to the ground.
The dangerous stunt was captured on video, with Elharraz (pictured center) hanging from a crane as others watched.
It is alleged that Yousif (pictured centre) threatened Elharraz several times over two years and even banned the worker from attending TAFE classes.
Another employee stated that Yusif threatened to fire him, intimidated him and swore at him.
“You harassed, humiliated and threatened both victims,” Judge Sim said.
Yousif’s company previously traded as Melbourne Glass Solutions, but the company was wound down following the WorkSafe investigation.
Yousif’s lawyer Joseph D’Abaco previously argued that his client had suffered enough from the fallout from the media reports.
Mr D’Abaco said Yousif’s business would be at risk if his client was found guilty of the crime.
“There is a real risk if the court were to convict Mr Yusus if it affected JADEN’s ability to successfully tender for certain projects,” he said.
Magistrate Sim said he was not satisfied Yousif was genuinely remorseful and fined him $60,000 on conviction and ordered him to pay WorkSafe’s legal costs of $6,000.