The advice follows a case involving reports in local Kidderminster paper The Shuttle about Usman Ulhaq of Alcester Road, Birmingham, who Redditch magistrates were told called a manager at Redditch recruitment agency AM2PM a “dirty white bitch” after he and a female friend were asked to leave the agency’s premises.

Ulhaq pleaded guilty to racially aggravated intentional harassment, and was sentenced to a 12-month community order and instructed to complete 40 hours’ unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £135 costs and a victim surcharge of £85.

Commenting on the case, Alan McGeorge, an AM2PM director, told Recruiter the agency decided to report the matter to the police, as he claimed Ulhaq was involved in a similar incident at the agency’s Birmingham branch. As the Redditch office has mainly female staff, he added, staff were instructed to ensure they were never on their own in the office.

“These are isolated incidents and unfortunately in this day and age these things happen from time to time…”

He advised other recruiters in a similar situation to “stay calm and take a common sense approach”. He continued: “Over the years, I can count loads of incidents – people putting their fists through windows, that sort of thing, badly cutting themselves. If it becomes extreme, call the police and let the police decide whether there’s room for prosecution because at the end of the day, if these people keep on doing this, they’ll go to competition of ours and something really bad could happen.”

Ulhaq visited the agency on 3 October last year with the woman so that she could undergo some tests before signing onto the agency’s books.

However, the woman, who claimed she had become unwell, was lying on the sofa and floor at the agency and did not perform well in the tests. After the agency’s staff informed her she would not be offered work, Ulhaq became abusive.

He left but later returned to the agency’s offices and was refused entry, which caused him to become angry again, approaching a member of staff who pushed him away. Ulhaq then left making a cut-throat gesture.

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