Max Kpakio tried his hand at victimhood poker. Being a black man, he held all the aces. Seems, however, that wasn’t good enough.
A man born in the African country of Liberia who accused Virgin Atlantic of racial discrimination has had his case dismissed.
Max Kpakio, of Swansea, claimed he was rejected for a job interview with the airline’s call centre until he applied again with the fake name “Craig Owen”.
But Virgin insisted it was an equal opportunities employer.
A tribunal found race played no part and that Mr Kpakio’s two applications were different.
Well, well, well, a sound decision from the tribunal. The “its racism, innit,” charge has been dismissed and a jolly good thing, too. Will this be the beginning of a new renaissance of common sense over political correctness and the canard that whitey is automatically racist? One can live in hope.
Mr Kpakio, a 36-year-old father of three, claimed loss of earnings and injury to feelings from Sir Richard Branson’s company, which amounted to £55,000.
You can’t lose what you never had and injury to feelings should never be worth money. Ever. Certainly not a five-figure sum. What are his feelings made of, bone china?
In a written statement, Judge Claire Sharp said: “The tribunal wishes to be absolutely, clear given the press coverage in the hearing bundle, that the claimant did not merely change the names and ethnicity in the two applications; they were different applications and the false application was clearly designed to meet the respondent’s criteria for the role.”
There’s a word that we use to describe attempting to obtain money through false pretences and deception; fraud. Mr Kpakio should be promptly charged and tried for this offence.
Ah yes, the dreaded compensation culture, could it be that this particular easy money bandwagon is finally hitting the buffers? I recall that you had a previous blog post regarding a failed attempt to bilk your own employer.
I now have a personal interest due to having been called as an expert witness in a case involving a guy who sustained an injury while using a powertool. The company that I work for manufactures and suplies the powertools, but the claim is not against us but against the employer who is accused of not providing sufficient training to the injured party. At this point I don’t even know which side I am being asked to appear for, maybe both. I do know that the firm that I am dealing with are serially incompetent, having repeatedly got my name wrong and having totally misunderstood my involvement in the case.
Yes, I did mention it here. It hit the buffers due to a robust defence. Not to mention that we intimated that their client would need to perjure himself if they went to court.