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Furious chip shop manager exposed himself to resident in Camden parking row

Poppies fish and chip shop in Camden Town  (Google StreetView)
Poppies fish and chip shop in Camden Town (Google StreetView)

A manager at a top London chip shop who was fired after exposing himself in a rage during a parking row was unfairly dismissed, a tribunal has ruled.

Recep Turhan, 52, could now get a payout after being fired in 2020 for dropping his trousers outside Poppies fish and chip shop in Camden Town.

The businessman, who went on to found the Jack the Chipper chip shops, exposed himself to a resident taking photos of him in a row over parking in 2016, a tribunal heard.

The photograph was then put into a leaflet and emailed to Poppies under the title ‘Exposed: Poppies’ Mini Flasher’.

He told the tribunal he was unaware of the photograph.

Employment judges ruled that he was unfairly dismissed because director Ural Hassan only fired him four years after the incident, despite the company knowing about it earlier.

“The matter came to the respondent's attention in 2016. I found that relevant managers saw the document and took no action at the time,” ruled the tribunal.

“They allowed the claimant to continue working in the knowledge of what he had done. In the circumstances, they affirmed the contract”.

Bosses also did not tell him he could bring a witness to the disciplinary hearing, or give him a letter of dismissal or a right of appeal, the tribunal found.

Poppies said it was disappointed with the verdict, and accused Mr Turhan of behaviour that “was not in line with the ethos of our family run business”.

Left: Recep Turhan, with his son Cagri Turhan, at his Jack the Chipper business in Greenwich (ITV)
Left: Recep Turhan, with his son Cagri Turhan, at his Jack the Chipper business in Greenwich (ITV)

Mr Turhan told the Standard over email that he worked for the business for ten years, to “make friends, make partnerships”, and that it was “immoral and dishonest” for someone to throw mud at another after ten years.

In a statement, a Poppies spokesperson told the Standard: “Following his departure from the business, lines of communication have improved and we have a far happier team.”

In the ruling, published earlier this month, Employment Judge Bernard Hobson found the company’s investigation was “inadequate” and that there were “serious shortcomings in the procedure adopted”.

Mr Turhan now runs his own fish and chip shops in Greenwich and Whitechapel.

He was hit with boycott calls after opening the Greenwich branch last year complete with a map of where Jack the Ripper killed his victims. The map was later covered.

“People shout abuse at us through the front door. They think I hate women,” he told the Sun newspaper at the time.

“I even did a half-price day for women to prove we’re not supportive of him. They had a go at me for that and started calling me sexist.”