A complaint for wearing a Moroccan fez

A Muslim Tesco employee has taken the supermarket giant to court for racial discrimination. He claims to have been compared to the late Tommy Cooper because he wore a distinctive fez to work as the Welsh comedian and magician did during his performances.

Kester Charles Bey took the supermarket giant to an employment tribunal and claimed that because of his “Moorish” origins, comparing him to Tommy Cooper constituted both religious and racial harassment. Cooper, whose act presented him as a conjurer whose tricks were never successful, became famous in the 1960s when he began appearing on television wearing a fez, the Moroccan hat. In court, Bey’s discrimination case was thrown out because he did not provide names or dates in his harassment complaint. Employment judge Paul Housego made it clear to him that his complaint had no chance of success.