Wetherspoons banned me and my OAP pal, 71, after making shocking accusation – we were humiliated
A MAN and his OAP pal have been banned from a Wetherspoons after staff made a shocking accusation - leaving the pair humiliated.
Mark Greenfield, 60, took his friend Keith Meredith, 71, for an afternoon pint on Friday at The Thomas Waghorn in Chatham, Kent.
Ordering two ales and sitting outside, the pair were ready to have a few celebratory drinks as Keith had recently had successful triple heart bypass surgery.
However, after only having a "mouthful" of their pint, the manager came over giving them the boot.
Local car boot owner Mark said she came out with a colleague and told them to leave "because you've been smoking drugs out here".
Shocked and horrified at the accusation, Mark told the manager she'd got it wrong as neither of them even smoke cigarettes.
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But she then went on to accuse Keith of being in the establishment the day before, "rolling a joint".
Mark told The Sun Online: "We sat there and within a minute we could smell cannabis and we both said 'awful smell isn't it'.
"We had a mouthful each of our pint and suddenly the manager came out with a colleague and said 'you've got to go'.
"She said two of her staff had reported us for smoking drugs. I told her she had got it completely wrong.
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"She then pointed at Keith and said 'he was identified as being in the pub yesterday and rolling a joint'.
"Keith had never been in this pub in his life before. It's absolutely ridiculous."
Mark said despite trying to explain to the Wetherspoons staff they had the wrong guys, they were marched out.
He added: "It was a right old commotion, it was embarrassing. She could have pulled us to one side but they had no CCTV and no evidence.
"She took our pints off us and marched us to the gate.
"They upset us both and upset the whole day. It was supposed to be an afternoon getting Keith out of the flat but instead we were accused of doing drugs.
"It was humiliating."
Mark, who is known by thousands of people in the local area because of his car boot business, said the claims are damaging.
He added: "I've got three adult children, one of them is studying to be a GP.
"To have the thought of his dad getting kicked out for taking drugs, come on that's not on is it.
"Thousands of people would know me. I'm pretty recognised, I've been doing the car boot for 25 years. It's damaging.
"I just couldn't believe it and it really upset Keith. He'd just come out major surgery.
"He felt awful after, he's a frail old man.
"He's just moved into a new flat, imagine someone seeing that and thinking one of their residents is taking drugs.
"The whole picture gets worse and worse."
WE'RE BARRED
Mark said he called the pub up around an hour later to ask for the manager's name so he could make a complaint on the website.
He claims he was told by the manager "my staff made a mistake" before admitting he was wrongly identified - but he didn't receive an apology.
Mark said: "The manager put the phone down on me and hung up.
"She said her staff made a mistake, but that's not bloody good enough."
Wetherspoons have since admitted the pals were wrongly identified and they were not smoking cannabis in the garden.
A spokesman for Wetherspoons said: "Wetherspoon has a zero tolerance approach to drug use on its premises and any customer who we believe may have been using drugs will be immediately asked to leave.
"Unfortunately Mr Greenfield was wrongly identified as having been using cannabis in the garden of the pub and was asked to leave by the manager on duty.
"It was only afterwards that it became clear that he had been wrongly identified.
"Mr Greenfield subsequently phoned the pub to discuss the incident. The duty manager apologised for the error but unfortunately he became personally abusive to her.
"In light of the comments made, he was asked not to return to the pub."
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Mark added: "I put my hands up I was abusive to her when she was chucking us out. I was livid, who wouldn't be annoyed.
"If you've ever been accused of anything and you're completely innocent it's awful."
