A Wainwright v Halfords Ltd - Witness Statement & Evidence

My witness statement and evidence (Prelim 1 - 49) for the 19 August 2024 postponed preliminary hearing can be viewed and downloaded via the links below.

Alan Wainwright - Witness Statement

Prelim 1

Prelim 2 

Prelim 3 

Prelim 4 

Prelim 5 

Prelim 6

Prelim 7

Prelim 8

Prelim 9

Prelim 10 

Prelim 11 

Prelim 12 

Prelim 13 

Prelim 14 

Prelim 15 

Prelim 16 

Prelim 17 

Prelim 18 

Prelim 19 

Prelim 20 

Prelim 21 

Prelim 22 

Prelim 23 

Prelim 24 

Prelim 25 

Prelim 26 

Prelim 27 

Prelim 28 

Prelim 29 

Prelim 30 

Prelim 31 

Prelim 32 

Prelim 33 

Prelim 34 

Prelim 35 

Prelim 36 

Prelim 37 

Prelim 38 

Prelim 39 

Prelim 40 

Prelim 41 

Prelim 42 

Prelim 43 

Prelim 44 

Prelim 45 

Prelim 46 

Prelim 47 

Prelim 48 

Prelim 49 

Racism at Halfords - Twitter

Please head over to my Twitter page to learn about Halfords' Tim O'Gorman (Chief Counsel & Company Secretary), Halfords' PR company Powerscourt Group, and the connection to the racism suffered by Azeem Rafiq at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Racism at Halfords - Twitter

Racism at Halfords - Chester

INTRODUCTION

My name is Alan Wainwright (alanwainwright1963@gmail.com) and I exposed the secret blacklisting of over 3,000 workers by forty of the UK's largest construction companies. This is best summed in this Guardian interview 

After being blacklisted for many years, I found part-time work in June 2023 at the Halfords Caldy Valley store in Chester. 

The employment was short-lived after management learned of my previous trade union activity and let me go. 

During this short time, I came across a range of racist and other vile conduct from Halfords staff there. 

This was condoned by the store manager, Josh Perry (below) and deputy store manager, Aaron Gore

PIKEYS

My first experience of racism came from Assistant Store Manager, Aaron Gore in response to a question about what to do should I suspect a potential theft. His response was that the only people we had to worry about with respect to theft were people from the travelling community. 

In the weeks that followed, there were further incidents where Aaron Gore would whip up a storm of concern (in person and over the radio headsets) about certain customers with Irish accents, with the inference being that they were there to steal. 

On Friday 8 September 2023, both Richard Howells and Wayne Murphy referred to three Irish customers as Pikeys. Richard over the store radio headsets and Wayne directly in person to me. This was not the first time they'd referred to Irish customers in this way. 

OTHER RACISM

On 22 June 2023, shortly after two Pakistani men drowned in the Titan submarine disaster, Joe Tunney posted a video of a Pakistani man and the Titan submarine in the Halfords Chester (Caldy Valley) store WhatsApp group. 

In this, the caption says:

"Here is the audio of the knocking they caught from the submarine"

A Pakistani man is then heard saying: 

"I am underwater, please help me". 

In another Halfords store WhatsApp group message from late July, Joe Tunney posted the following after attending a Halfords training course:

"Just been arguing with some Turkish prick 😂😂😂"

Rather than discipline Joe Tunney for these racist posts, store manager, Josh Perry then announced Joe Tunney as the Chester (Caldy Valley) 'colleague of the month' for July in the very next post. 

This was then endorsed by the deputy manager, Aaron Gore who posted:

"100% agree"

This was then endorsed by the technician (and sometimes acting store manager), Wayne Murphy who posted:

"Well done @Joe"

HALFORDS' CHIEF EXECUTIVE - GRAHAM STAPLETON

I've written to the Halfords Chief Executive (graham.stapleton@halfords.com) about this on three separate occasions and provided him with all the supporting evidence. It's now clear that he intends to do absolutely nothing about this, as the correspondence has been ignored and all those involved are still working at the store.

All the letters and supporting evidence are published below in this blog. 

Sexism, Misogyny & Homophobia at Halfords - Chester

Being large stores with rolling shift patterns, Halfords staff use two methods of 'in-store' communication.

• Radio headsets
• A Store WhatsApp Group

In addition to the vile racism from some at the Chester (Caldy Valley) store, the following are examples of some of the vile communications from the store management and staff during my brief time there.

AARON GORE (Assistant Store Manager)

On 6 July 2023, Aaron Gore posted a photograph of a pink and brown key. The post is a sexual reference (which does not require any further explanation) and the caption read:

• “Just a little life hack to know which key goes in the front door and which goes in the back door”.

JOE TUNNEY (Technician)

On 22 June 2023, Joe Tunney posted a photograph of a magnet (used to disable security tags) in the store toilet. In the accompanying message to Wayne Murphy he posted:

• “Is this what ya mum used to loosen her but plug when she needs a shit”

I heard other similar sex-related comments about Wayne’s mum over the headsets during my employment, but all were condoned by store management.

During my last weekend shift, Aaron Gore made reference to a customer's “massive tits” and then went on to communicate over the headsets that he liked women “with a bit of meat on them”. 

In the following radio headset exchange (witnessed by Joe Tunney), Aaron Gore asked me what my sexual preferences were. Not wanting to ignore him, I responded by simply saying that sexual preference was subjective. This conversation was overheard by Joe Tunney who quickly jumped in to say that my response was very diplomatic.

On 27 June 2023, Aaron Gore posted:

• “As a team we have been smashing the granny out of everything this last few weeks”.

The discussion then moved on to a conversation between Aaron Gore and Joe Tunney about a customer”

• Joe Tunney: “She changes her mind after I made the order”
• Aaron Gore: “She’s daft as that bike is far too small for her daughter”
• Joe Tunney: “Honestly I don’t know what the fuck she wants”

Tyler joined the conversation, which ended with Joe Tunney saying:

• Joe Tunney: “Sound, well if we can get this done by the weekend then fuck her off will be great”

RICHARD HOWELLS (Technician)

On 1 August 2023, Richard Howells posted a photograph of a number plate “AM I 2 GAY” and wrote:

• “Anyone want to make this number plate?”

On 16 July 2023, Alex Jones posted a photograph of some keys and said:

• “Well I’m a fucking mong”

Further examples can be found in my letter to Halfords Chief Executive, Graham Stapleton (graham.stapleton@halfords.com) dated 18 September 2023. 

Chester People are "Scum"

JOSH PERRY (Store Manager)

Born, bred and based in Wrexham, Josh Perry (below) is Halfords' store manager at Chester (Caldy Valley). Not only does he condone racism and other vile conduct by his team, he also thinks Chester people are "Scum".

Referring to a football match between Chester and Wrexham (attendance 3,183), and reposted in 2021, this screen grab was taken from his Facebook page on 23 October 2023. 

And, he'd rather be dressed as a sex offender in 2022 than whatever was in this removed content.

And this taken from his Facebook page on 23 October 2023.

• "Now send the money grabbing slag down!"

More Racism at Halfords - The Independent

You can read about racism at other Halfords stores in these two recent articles by Nadine White at The Independent.

Chris Best v Halfords Ltd

Mr Adjei-Dawkins v Halfords Ltd

Halfords Racism Letter - 9 September 2023