A Porsche salesman has won an unfair dismissal case after he was subjected to shocking racism but ended up being sacked himself for joining in with the 'banter'.
Shailesh Rathod was the only non-white salesman at the male-dominated dealership in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands.
When British Asian Mr Rathod joined, he was the target of practical jokes and was nicknamed 'chapati' and 'poppadom' by colleagues.
A tribunal heard that the dealership had an 'extremely laddish' culture and was rife with sexism, racism, and homophobia.
On one occasion the 49-year-old brought in McDonald's for the sales team on a Saturday he wasn't working and had his son with him. It was heard that a male co-worker then threw a banana at the floor by his son and said 'I want to see how he reacts' before 'laughing intensely'.
Mr Rathod felt he had 'no choice' but to 'go along' with the environment because he was an 'outsider' trying to 'integrate', explaining: 'Because I wanted to keep my job, to be part of that group, I had no choice.'
Porsche salesman Shailesh Rathod, 49, won an unfair dismissal case after he was subjected to shocking racism but ended up being sacked himself for joining in with the 'banter'
After the toxic culture impacted his mental and physical health, Mr Rathod raised a grievance to bosses at the Porsche garage in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, and in particular complained about severe treatment from a colleague named only as 'Oliver'.
However, Mr Rathod was later sacked on charges of race and sex harassment towards the white colleague - because he sent him racially offensive and misogynistic memes and jokes on WhatsApp.
Oliver, referred to as 'O' throughout the tribunal, resigned before he could face a disciplinary process but sent bosses screenshots of their WhatsApp chat in which they shared the memes.
Now, Mr Rathod has successfully sued the Pendragon Sabre Ltd - which owns the Porsche garage - for unfair dismissal after a judge ruled bosses ignored the wider office culture and that Mr Rathod was racially harassed and was just trying to fit in.
At Nottingham Employment Tribunal Centre, Judge Clark criticised the environment at Porsche Sutton Coldfield.
Judge Clark said: 'All the sales staff were male. There are female employees in other roles.
'I find the culture was "laddish", crude and immature and this manifested in the day-to-day interactions in the workplace on the sales floor.
'Topics of conversation included graphic and crude sexual references; sometimes generic, sometimes focused on a particular female and sometimes even young females attending the dealership with their family.
'This particular laddish culture
