Burger King Brighton Asks Disabled Man To Pay For Toilet Use

A DISABLED man was banned from using the toilets at a fast-food restaurant.

Shaun Thorogood, 30, who has cerebral palsy, is the latest customer to tell The Argus they were refused entry to the loos at the Burger King restaurant in North Street, Brighton.

However, the fast-food giant has refused to apologise to the family.

Shaun’s mother, Wendy Thorogood, came forward after reading about pregnant Karen Gunner, who featured in The Argus after being refused use of the toilets at the city centre restaurant.

Mrs Thorogood and her son visited the burger bar – entering through the Duke Street entrance – but a security guard refused to let them enter the toilets unless they paid £1.

Mrs Thorogood said: “Shaun is not very good at walking on his own so before I went to order the food I went to take him to the toilet. There was a man standing there who said he couldn’t let us in if we didn’t have a receipt.

“When I said we didn’t he said I could pay a pound or order our food first to get a receipt. I only had a £5 note and he didn’t have any change and he said I would have to go to the counter.

“I couldn’t leave Shaun. I can understand they don’t want people who are not customers using their loos, but it was a really quiet day.

 “Shaun’s registered blind. He can’t walk anywhere without me holding his arm. It would have been obvious he is disabled and [the security guard] could have shown some discretion.

“For me to go over and get a receipt would have taken ten minutes – what did they want, a 30-year-old man wetting himself in their restaurant?”

Burger King bosses blamed Christmas staff for refusing to allow six-month-pregnant Karen Gunner from using their loos in December but promised staff would be reminded to allow any pregnant ladies to spend a penny for free.

They issued an apology to Ms Gunner but told The Argus they did not want to apologise to the Thorogoods or comment on their policy for allowing disabled customers to use their toilets.

The incident drew criticism from Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion.

She said: “This is just the kind of anti-common sense example of a policy being taken too far.

“It beggars belief that a business would deem this sort of treatment of people acceptable and allow it to happen in the first place, let alone again.

“I trust that the store’s management will apologise immediately and train its staff appropriately in future to ensure this never happens again.”

Rosemary Frazer, campaigns manager at disability charity Scope, said: “Companies should have a clear and transparent policy on whether disabled people can use their accessible toilets for free.

“Disabled people often find town and city centres don’t meet their needs. As a wheelchair user I know it can be incredibly difficult to find accessible toilets.”