The Savills estate agent accused of posting a racist tweet about black England footballers following their recent Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy at Wembley Stadium has been sacked by the company.
Andrew Bone, 37, who worked as commercial building manager, was suspended in July. His contract has now been terminated, London-based Savills confirmed in a statement on Twitter yesterday.
Bone claimed that his Twitter account was hacked and called for police to investigate after Savills suspended him.
The vile Tweet, published shortly after England’s Euros defeat to Italy at Wembley Stadium in July, had said: “N****** ruined it for us”.
The hateful tweet was directed at England players Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford. The message has since been deleted.
Police officers carrying evidence bags and a police radio were recently spotted searching Bone’s house in Manchester and spent around 20 minutes gathering evidence before they left, with one officer holding a laptop.
In a statement, GMP said: “We are firm in our commitment, any racist abuse whether online or off is not acceptable.”
I do hate, how in this day and age, a person’s life can be turned upside down/ruined on an allegation rather than on evidence or conviction. I feel action should only be taken (by employers or the media) upon conviction, not upon arrest/allegation; because even if you are cleared, you are forever “tainted” and seen as “having gotten away with it” rather than having been innocent.
If he did what he is alleged to have done; of course, full termination and a criminal record because hate speech of any kind is deplorable.
But until that is “proven” (by way of evidence which causes him to change his plea or by a conviction which is generally accepted as proof even though innocent people are at times convicted), he should not have been name and shamed and should not have been terminated.
Of course, “my account was hacked” is a pathetic excuse but, how much do we know about this?
Surely Twitter can provide the IP address used to send that Tweet at that time. Was it his home IP? Was he at home when it was sent? Was the IP for somewhere else? It’s pretty damning circumstantial evidence if it was his account, his home IP, and he was home. Whereas if it was his account, but different IP (and he was home), or his account and home IP (but he was down the pub with dozens of witnesses), his defence becomes more credible.
My main gripe, however, is that this country has turned into a “guilty until proven innocent” society, where a single accusation can cause you to lose your job, your partner, your children; without any conviction.
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You are being naive. Why would a hacker take control of a nondescript estate agent’s Twitter account to make a racist comment? The hacker could instead be stealing cash from unsuspecting victims. It’s a ridiculous defence. Twitter has two stage authentication for starters, on most accounts.
The Police became involved after the tweeter claimed he had been hacked. He was then arrested. He may have confessed to his employer and his employer will have made a decision based on the facts available to them.
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It wouldn’t take a criminal mastermind to access someone’s Twitter account. Maybe the agent forgot to log out of another computer, or the hacker was a disgruntled ex-girlfriend who knew the password to his email account.
I’m not making excuses for the agent, just pointing out it can be very easy to take control of someone’s social media accounts.
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Australia just passed a law which permits the authorities to do this without a warrant.
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You’ve missed the point AlwaysanAgent. He’s talking about a point of law, not a twit tweeting.
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You’re saying that Savills made a decision without the facts? I don’t believe that.
The guy is hardly a criminal mastermind but it’s very, very hard to believe someone hacked his account. Savills agree with this or they wouldn’t have sacked his sorry backside.
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AlwaysAnAgent – pointing out that as per police and Savills’ comment, the matter is still under investigation and that it’s an allegation not fact, is not naive.
Did my post state that “I believe he’s innocent”? It did not.
The likelihood of someone “hacking him” does seem low, but until proven (or convicted), an allegation should not cost anybody their job or family.
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Right, there is only one way to decide this. Bring forth the ducking stool !!!
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Agree 100% ComplianceGuy. ‘Mob-judgement’ ahead of conviction or confession is an ugly thing. Along with condemning people for something they said or wrote decades ago, in the context of that time period, and for which an apology today is never enough for the mob.
Watch the stoning scene in Life of Brian for an idea of how it goes.
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I’m conflicted; on the one hand a person’s life should not be ruined based on one allegation, however how many times have we had one allegation suddenly be followed by more when someone connects the dots? Maybe this chap is innocent. Maybe he was hacked, there is no information around at the moment to say for definite one way or the other. BUT, what if after this got around the local area, someone from the pub mentioned that they had heard him saying things like this before? Maybe one of his colleagues had a conversation where he said something about not trusting black/Asian/minority race because of (reasons)? If he had not been named, these might not have come to light, and a racist would still be making his little digs.
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Agree, but if he is innocent, in this day and age, he will proably turn into a TV reality celebrity.
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Well done Savills for dealing with this.
No room in this world for hatred like this. Hopefully the individual learns this is not acceptable and changes his ways.
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So you know he definitely did this, right?
The ‘Court of Public Opinion’ decides these matters now, does it?
Has he been charged yet SP? Is there any guarantee he will be charged?
Let’s just hold on until the matter is put before a Judge.
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The problem I have with this is “Savills sacks estate agent after alleged racist tweet”. If he admitted it or it was proven, well done to them… if not, surely they would have to wait for evidence?
I’m personally not a fan of “shaming” simply because people’s lives can be ruined on allegations and if they’re innocent, it is unjust. I mean that’s unlikely in this instance, but then again we’re not judges and cannot make that determination.
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