A Gourmet Burger Kitchen customer has branded the chain a 'disgrace' after witnessing a manager throw a deaf man out of the restaurant.
Louise DeNew says she was inside the Wimbledon branch of the restaurant in London on Saturday afternoon when a "middle-aged deaf gentleman and his wife" were thrown out - 'because they had a hearing assistance dog with them.'
"The small dog clearly wore an assistance dog harness and the deaf gentleman tried to show the manager the dog ID card on its lead," Louise said.
She claims that despite protests from the couple and other customers, the manager still ordered them out of the establishment.
Louise says she and her partner were so upset by the events, they put a formal complaint into the manager who, she alleges, "just shrugged and arrogantly stated it was GBK policy".
In a Facebook post describing the alleged incident, Louise said: "Well frankly shame on you GBK, not only have you broken a human rights law which clearly gives guidelines for restaurants on the laws of non discrimination against disabled customers including those with assistance dogs.
"You have ignored your statements on your own website stating your ethical policy, breaking not only decent moral codes but this country's own discrimination laws.
"Your business and your staff are a disgrace."
The company has now apologised profusely for the incident in the below statement.
Louise's Facebook post has gone viral and led to hundreds of damning comments from disgusted social media users.
Kim Launder commented: "Disgraceful! Don't use the restaurant! Close it down!"
Dawn Abbotts wrote: "My mum has a hearing dog, she too has suffered similar situations. Dogs e.g. for the blind, deaf etc are now collectively called assistance dogs. The general population need to be aware!"
Mirror Online contacted Gourmet Burger Kitchen about the claims and received a statement from Alasdair Murdoch, CEO of the chain.
He said: “ I was very disappointed to learn of the incident at the weekend that occurred in our Wimbledon restaurant.
"At GBK we firmly believe in equality and the treatment of these customers was unacceptable.
"This in no way reflects the values of the company and we are truly sorry for the upset that was caused.
"We have taken this matter very seriously. All our restaurants accept assistance dogs and we are taking immediate action to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
"We are reviewing all training and are re-communicating with all members of staff regarding our inclusive policy.
"In the meantime we have been in touch with the customer affected to apologise and have resolved the situation directly.
"Again, we would like to apologise sincerely if we have offended anyone through this matter.”