JD Wetherspoon in £24,000 traveller discrimination payout

19 May 2015 by Neil Gerrard

JD Wetherspoon has been ordered to pay out £24,000 to a group of travellers who were banned from one of its pubs after a court ruled the chain had racially discriminated against them.

The group of eight travellers were among those attending the Traveller Movement's annual conference in London on 17 November 2011.

After the conference, the eight delegates - including a police inspector, priest and solicitor - tried to have a drink at the Coronet in Holloway Road but were denied entry.

Yesterday, a judge ruled that the delegates were the victims of discrimination because they were barred solely on the grounds of their race.

However the judge at Central London county court also found that JD Wetherspoon did not have a discriminatory motive and that its door staff did not act in an aggressive or hostile manner.

Nonetheless, the managed pub group faces legal costs of up to £1m following the case.

Door staff had been engaged at the pub by the then-manager David Leach due to his concerns following disturbances at Dale Farm in Essex and previous disorder at the premises following an Anarchist Bookfair in 2005.

Judge John Hand QC found in favour of the travellers on eight claims on the single issue of direct discrimination and ordered JD Wetherspoon to pay each of them £3,000.

Another 10 claimants failed in their bid for compensation because they were not among the group who originally tried to gain entry to the Coronet.

All claims for harassment and aggravated damages were dismissed.

Judge Hand said: "The whole of the thinking… was suffused with the stereotypical assumption that Irish travellers and English gypsies cause disorder wherever they go.

"In my judgment, this is a racial stereotyping of those with that ethnic origin.

"It can be reduced to this crude proposition - wherever Irish travellers and English gypsies go to public houses, violent disorder is inevitable because that is how they behave."

"Wetherspoon apologises to the eight individuals who were denied entry and for any upset and distress this caused to them.

"It is the first time that a claim of this nature has been brought against the company in the 35 years of its existence.

"In light of the judgment, though we have always been fully committed to operating our premises in a non-discriminatory way, we will undertake a full review of our relevant policies, procedures and training.

"The case was especially difficult, in the light of the grave illness and subsequent death of David Leach, prior to the commencement of the trial.

"The level of costs in the case incurred by the claimants' lawyers was astronomical and unjustified, in my opinion.

"Even before the trial started, over £700,000 worth of legal costs had been incurred by them.

"I understand that the total costs, if all the claimants had have been successful, would have amounted to over £1million including success fees for the law firm concerned.

"This seems disproportionate for a total claim of less than £30,000. There has now been a change in the law which means lawyers can no longer recover these enhanced success fees in such cases. .JD Wetherspoon welcomes this as it will be to the benefit of claimants and defendants in the future and in the interest of justice."

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