A former NSW firefighter wrongly accused of fraud and subsequently bullied and harassed by senior officers says he has been snubbed by the NSW Emergency Services Minister.
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David Simms, who is still embroiled in a legal battle to clear his name and gain compensation, wrote to Minister Troy Grant three weeks ago pleading for help.
Mr Simms contacted the Minister after the Mercury revealed details of his traumatic time in Fire and Rescue NSW.
What Mr Simms went through included being ambushed by his own colleagues, blindfolded, gagged, tied to a chair and doused with cooking oil and cleaning products in an "initiation" ceremony while serving in Fire and Rescue NSW.
A spokeswoman for the Minister told the Mercury that Mr Grant would not be making any comment.
I would like to ask Mr Grant to walk a mile in my shoes
- Former firefighter David Simms to Emergency Services minister Troy Grant
Mr Simms' partner Lee-Anne sent a personal letter to the Minister urging him to intervene. To date the couple have not received a response.
"I would like to ask Mr Grant to walk a mile in my shoes," Mr Simms said this week.
"I believe that he is a former police officer. How would he feel personally if he were falsely accused of 113 charges of fraud by senior officers, legally proved his innocence beyond irrefutable doubt, lost his career, had his mental health and normal family life destroyed?" he said.
Mr Simms said he had paid an enormous price.
"Unfortunately my family have paid a far greater price, as the Minister would have read in Lee-Anne's email".
Mr Simms has made a public plea to the Minister.
"Mr Grant, you're the Minister of Emergency Services. I believe that you have known about my case and my innocence for years through the chain of command from FRNSW but you have never once intervened or investigated FRNSW, workplace standards and senior officers in the inept handling of my case.
"I look forward to your anticipated response and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your time in its preparation."
Greens MP David Shoebridge said the "dreadful" treatment of Mr Simms, as revealed by the Mercury, was not isolated.
"We need a systemic fix to bullying in emergency services not just crisis responses to individual scandals," Mr Shoebridge said at the time.