Leeds council worker who thought friendly wave was a Nazi salute

Lakhbeer Barn, 40, also thought that someone scratching their nose was making a bullying gesture towards him, and that the use of the word sunbed was a racial slur.

Barn told a Leeds tribunal he had suffered two years of harassment by up to 48 colleagues at the council’s customer contact centre, including “intimidatory gestures and slapping noises”.

As evidence, he submitted transcripts of secret tape recordings he had made of colleagues’ conversations in the pub after work, and screen grabs of private instant message exchanges between former friends.

But after a four-day hearing the tribunal unanimously rejected his claims, finding that he had “misinterpreted” everyday conversations and gestures.

The chair of the panel Susan Cox said there was “absolutely no basis” for believing that he had been isolated by co-workers, as he claimed, and that he had deliberately removed himself from social contact with co-workers.

She said: “We find no grounds for believing there was any intention by anybody to create a hostile environment for Mr Barn.”

She added that Mr Barn, who blamed the alleged harassment on his Sikh origin and his brother’s disability, had misinterpreted gestures as being part of an orchestrated campaign.

She said: “These are all gestures used on a routine basis in everyday life... placing two fingers on our faces, scratching our noses. This was no more than normal behaviour, people going about their everyday lives at work.”

The tribunal heard that Mr Barn had changed his original claim from simple bullying to one of racially-motivated bullying after seeking advice from his union adviser.