Tesco sued over £20,000 'breaking wind' case

A Tesco employee is suing the supermarket chain for harassment and race discrimination after a colleague allegedly deliberately farted at him, the Evening Standard reports.

Atif Masood, a Customer Assistant from Thornton Heath claims the colleague “broke wind in his face” as one of several acts of less favourable treatment he suffered because of his Muslim background. As a result, he is demanding £20,000.

He says he has not received an apology, and that Tesco has not investigated his complaint properly, even though an internal investigation found “sufficient evidence” from CCTV footage that the fart did happen as Masood described.

Masood, through his lawyers, Rahman Lowe Solicitors, alleges it amounted to “unwanted conduct which had the purpose or effect of violating his dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and/or offensive” situation.