A SHEPHERD and his wife were told yesterday that they had won their redundancy fight against a wealthy absentee estate owner.

Landlord Andrew Fraser, a financial consultant and the son of a law lord and life peer, decided to get rid of his 2200 flock and make shepherd George Matheson redundant from his #12,000 a year post.

Mr Fraser, 53, a former director of Barings Bank, took the decision last year when the bottom fell out of the sheep trade on his 11,000-acre Highland estate.

However Mr Matheson, 46, thought he had been unfairly selected for redundancy from Corriegarth Estate near Fort Augustus, and went to an industrial tribunal in Inverness last week where he was represented by his wife, Margot, a cookery student.

Mr Matheson who is seeking compensation, claimed that favouritism and nepotism was involved, and that it was the estate manager's son Kevin Johnston who should have been paid off since he had returned to the estate for only 18 months compared with his four years service.

The Mathesons, who are still living free of charge in an estate house, have been told they have won their claim for compensation. However, the detailed reasons for the tribunal decision and the amount of compensation will be issued later.

Mr Matheson, who is now a freelance estate worker, said: ''Of course I am happy the tribunal went with us. We never went after the estate for the money but to prove a point of principle. At the end of the day I do not have a full-time job.''