Bank worker wins £490,000 payout after being unfairly dismissed for using the N-word in anti-racism training session - and says middle-aged white men are 'bottom of everything'

Father-of-two Carl Borg-Neal, 58, from Andover, Hampshire, won £490,000

A bank manager who was unfairly sacked for seeking advice on what to do if he heard a black person using the N-word at work has won a £490,000 payout.

Father-of-two Carl Borg-Neal, 58, from Andover, Hampshire, raised the question during a Lloyds Bank race education training session, but in doing so inadvertently used the word in full himself. He apologised immediately.

It left the woman leading the exercise apparently so ‘badly distressed’ that she had to take a week off – a ‘key reason’ for the decision to dismiss Mr Borg-Neal for gross misconduct.

This week, he was awarded almost £500,000 in damages. Added to Lloyds’s legal costs and tax, the bank has a bill of nearly £1million.

The payout is the culmination of a two-year battle to clear his name after working for the bank and its affiliates for 30 years.

He told The Telegraph:  ‘I often wonder if I wasn’t a white middle-aged male would I have had to go through everything I went through. There is no way of telling. You are bottom of everything.’

Carl Borg-Neal, 58, raised the question during a Lloyds Bank race education training session, but in doing so inadvertently used the word in full himself

Lloyds Bank said: ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy on… racist language and are considering appealing the judgment made’ (File image)

The London Central Employment Tribunal panel said the manager was thinking of ‘the use of the N-word by black people in rap lyrics or to each other when playing basketball’ and did not intend to cause hurt, adding that his question was valid and without malice.

Mr Borg-Neal, a former mayor and councillor blamed dyslexia and successfully claimed disability discrimination.

He had worked at the branch in question for 17 years and saw it as the ‘perfect job’.

Even though he has been awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds, Mr Borg-Neal still has not received an apology from Lloyds.

At the time of the initial ruling, Lloyds Bank said: ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy on… racist language and are considering appealing the judgment made.’

Today, a Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson: ‘We received the judgement in August and accept its findings.’