A nudist has accused Wetherspoon of ‘discrimination’ after he was accused of bending over in front of a young customer whilst grabbing a poppadom and ‘accidentally exposing his bum’.
Richard Collins says that he ordinarily wears nothing at all, but was wearing a hoodie, a jumper, a suede skirt, and no underwear when turning up to his local Wetherspoon pub in Hasting, East Sussex.
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Despite the fact that he was wearing clothes, the staff allegedly still attempted to boot him out of the establishment after the incident.
The 67-year-old said that he bought a chicken tikka curry at the bar before noticing that there was a poppadom on his seat.
So, he tried to ‘flick it off’ but didn’t know that a mother and her teenage daughter were sitting behind him and might have accidentally caught an eyeful.
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Collins says that he’s been visiting the John Logie Baird pub around four times each week for 10 years, and says that the mum and her daughter are to blame for ‘looking up his skirt’.
He says they should ‘avert their eyes’ if they don’t want to see these sorts of things.
Collins is the founder of Naturists UK and – obviously – a proudly naked man a lot of the time.
The nudist was asked to leave the pub by the manager for ‘bending over with no underwear on’.
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Richard said that if ‘you or your child look up someone's skirt then don't complain if you don't like what you see! Avert your eyes!’
Now, the native North Londoner is campaigning for legislation to be changed to accommodate naturist rights, meaning he and his nudey pals can ‘walk into any pub naked’ and be served without complaint.
He insists he should enjoy legal protection under the Equalities Act 2010, as he sees naturism as a philosophical belief.
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Collins said that this incident ‘spoiled an otherwise lovely day of naked cycling, sunbathing and swimming’.
He explained: "I thought that was a bit extreme.
"The manager could have just said, 'we just had a complaint, could you be a bit more careful and not bend over.'"
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When the manager asked Collins to leave, he complained that he'd already ordered food and was offered a refund.
When he insisted that he wanted to finish his meal and was happy to move, staff allowed him to sit elsewhere.
Thankfully, the incident hasn't completely soured his relationship with his local.
He said: "I went into Wetherspoons the next night and had a steak and stayed for quite a while. It was all as normal."
A Wetherspoons spokesperson said: "In accordance with our dress policy, we ask all our customers to dress appropriately and, more specifically, in a way which would not cause offence to employees or other customers.
"The pub's management, quite rightly, did not consider that Mr Collins was dressed in such manner.
"Mr Collins is of course more than welcome in all our pubs, should he choose to adhere to our dress policy.
"We do not consider that there has been any breach of the Equality Act."
Topics: UK News, Weird, Food And Drink, Wetherspoons
Tom Wood