E-mail this to a friend
Print this
Disabled TV man wins payout for chip-and-pin ordeal at Checkout
Evening Standard
30 January 2008
A Former Sky News presenter with a brain disease has won a landmark case after suffering discrimination at a supermarket checkout.
Tim Arnold, 47, suffers from tuberous sclerosis, which causes brain tumours, and when shopping finds it easier to pay with a signature credit card than a chip and pin.
But when he went to a supermarket to buy shaving foam October 2006 checkout staff would not serve him, even though he tried to explain his disability.
He was humiliated when ordered to stand aside to let other people in the queue go ahead of him. Now he has agreed an out-of-order settlement under which the amount of damages as well as the supermarket chain and its location cannot be revealed.
Mr Arnold, who now works as a crisis communications consultant, said: “I am please the supermarket has settled and apologised but it beggars belief that big firms still breach the law like this.
“If I was refused a drink because I was gay, or if I was imprisoned because I was black, there would be an outcry, but people think disability isn’t an issue. They are wrong. All discrimination is wrong”
His lawyer, Paul Daniels of Russell Jones and Walker, said : “ This is a very significant case as it shows the importance of shops, restaurants, pubs and other goods and service providers having policies to deal with the use of chip and pin and signature cards and, crucially, the need to properly train staff.
“This case shows disabled customers are entitles to reasonable adjustments so they can access a service, just like any other customer. Companies must realise they have a duty to treat disabled customers fairly.”