A supermarket founder has joined the furious row over two-tier policing by revealing a member of staff was handcuffed in store because of a malicious racism accusation. Iceland founder Sir Malcolm Walker said he made a formal complaint to the Metropolitan Police after one of his staff was seized by officers when a customer made a phoney allegation of racist abuse. Sir Malcolm revealed the Asian store supervisor had remonstrated with a black customer who had been tampering with milk bottles in the supermarket. The knighted entrepreneur said that after the customer phoned the police and made a false allegation of racism police arrived in “three minutes” and handcuffed the staff member.
Galled by the police response to the incident, Sir Malcolm told the Mail on Sunday “two-tier policing isn’t just happening on the streets” and pointed out officers often don’t bother to attend when staff have been attacked or threatened with violence by shoplifters. A global spotlight has been shone on Britain’s policing after the horrific case of Henry Nowak, the innocent 18-year-old student who was handcuffed as he lay dying on the ground by police after his murderer lied that he had been racist.