Michael Doran stopped in at the North Western pub in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, with two of his colleagues to take shelter from the rain on Tuesday
THIS is the moment a pub manager refused to serve a builder a glass of Coke on his lunch break - because he's a traveller.
Michael Doran stopped in at the North Western pub in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, with two of his colleagues to take shelter from the rain on Tuesday.
The dad, from Oxford, said his pals went to set up a game of pool while he walked to the bar to order three glasses of Coke.
But he says the barmaid refused him service and when she fetched the manager, he explained it was because they're travellers.
In the footage, the pub worker can be heard telling Michael that it's their policy to only serve four travellers at a time.
Despite there only being three of them, Michael says that the staff member was more concerned about "safety" and whether there would be "more travellers" showing up.
Michael informs the manager that he is filming him and asks him to confirm their policy to the camera, to which he says: "We can only serve four at a time."
Michael responds: "You do understand that there is a law against discrimination?
The manager says: "I do, but I'm just telling you what I've been told."
Michael can be heard saying: "We've just come in, I'm only ordering a glass of Coke on me lunch break while we're just having a game of pool.
"And, in front of everyone here, you don't serve travellers?"
He then asks the member of staff for his name and he coolly replies: "I'm Brandon."
Michael says: "Okay, have we caused you any problems? Have we been noisy?"
To this the manager replies: "No, it's not that. It's past experience and that's what my manager is trying to enforce on me."
Michael says: "But have we caused any problems? I've only just walked in and I was ordering a glass of Coke, while playing one game of pool."
Panning the camera to show his clothes, he continues: "As you can see here, I'm at work, and you're not concerned?"
Brandon says: "Our concern is about safety. Obviously, when we normally get a few people in we normally get more and then we can't... because we end up getting a lot of trouble."
The recording stops and Michael says that's when he asked the pub to call police, but they were unable to immediately attend so he left the premises.
Speaking to the Sun Online, he said: "I could maybe understand if it was late at night and ordering alcohol but it was lunchtime.
"I had a hi-vis jacket on and was asking for a glass of Coke.
"There was a dog in there and I said 'so you're okay to have a dog in here but not us?' and he told me yeah.
"It just caught me completely off guard - I couldn't believe it. I've never experienced something so brazen.
"It was embarrassing."
He added: "He came over as we were leaving and said 'can I apologise? I just didn't know how to deal with it'.
"Well, I'm sure he wouldn't have asked any other person to leave because of their ethnic background.
"It's just completely racist."
The pub, which is part of the Charles Wells chain, says it is investigating.
A spokesperson for the company said: "We take this matter very seriously and will be investigating this ourselves and cooperating fully with the police.
"As it is a police matter it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.”
Thames Valley Police has been contacted.
It comes after a family were refused service at a Hungry Horse pub in Reading, Berkshire, earlier this month - because they were travellers.
Michael Connors, 31, took his wife and three children to celebrate his friend’s daughter turning five but was “angry and embarrassed” when he was told the group of four adults and seven children had to leave.
He is now hoping to sue the pub, called The Trooper Potts, for discrimination after he accused the manager of being a racist.
Hungry Horse said the team member featured in the footage no longer works for the business.
A spokesman added: "Our teams do have the right to refuse service if they have reasonable grounds to do so but we are sorry if anyone was made to feel uncomfortable.”
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