Lewisham council worker flashed ID to get into busy bar, tribunal heard

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A council worker misused his position to try and gain entry to a packed bar, an employment tribunal heard.

Delroy Downer told security at Little Nan’s Bar, in Deptford Market Yard, Deptford, that he should be allowed in despite it being full because he was part of Lewisham council’s licensing team, according to staff at the now-closed venue.

Mr Downer and several other staff from the council’s nuisance enforcement team had headed to the bar for drinks after a Christmas lunch out in December 2017, an employment tribunal judgement from February revealed.

A member of door staff refused part of the group entry because the venue was at capacity, leading to Mr Downer and other members of council staff to allegedly kick up a fuss and claim the security officer, known only as Monique, was being rude, according to the tribunal judgement.

The manager of the now-closed bar reported the incident to a council manager by email the same evening.

Following an in-house investigation, Mr Downer was handed a final written warning, which was reduced to a nine-month written warning on appeal.

Another member of council staff, Richard Lockett, was handed a nine-month written warning for his behaviour at the bar.

Mr Lockett, who also worked as an enforcement officer at the council, confessed to his line manager that he had taken out his council ID during the incident at the bar.

But he claimed it was “not in an attempt to gain access to the bar, but to get the door staff to listen to him,” according to the employment tribunal judgement.

Mr Downer, who is black, subsequently filed a race discrimination case against the council, alleging that it had broken the law by treating him less favourably because of his skin colour.

Judge Tsamados dismissed the case brought by Downer against the council in a judgement dated February 22, 2023.

The judge said that there was “no evidence to indicate” that the council’s director of public services, Ralph Wilkinson, who dealt with the disciplinary hearings, would have treated Mr Downer any differently if he had been White.

A judgement on the case which was heard in London in August last year reads: “There is a difference in the circumstances between the claimant and Mr Lockett.

“Namely, the differing nature of the allegations against them and their very different approaches. Mr Lockett took responsibility for his actions, whereas the claimant denied everything, and this is the obvious explanation for the treatment applied to each.

“Using a hypothetical comparator, that is a white officer in the same circumstances as the claimant, there is no evidence to indicate that Mr Wilkinson would have treated such a comparator any differently.

“As Mr Wilkinson said in his written evidence, he dealt with each case separately on the basis of its merits in a non-discriminatory way.”

The judgement concluded: “We find that the claimant’s complaints of direct race discrimination are unfounded and we dismiss his claim.”

Pictured top: Little Nan’s Bar in Deptford (Picture: Ewan Munro)