Alan Brazil has been found in breach of Ofcom's broadcasting code, after he claimed on-air that Glasgow's rat infestation was caused by Asian immigrants.

The controversial radio presenter drew a complaint from a listener after he blamed Glasgow's problem on the food storage practices of Asian people who had moved to the city.

According to the broadcasting watchdog, the 59-year-old's comments 'fell short of accepted standards' and had the potential to cause 'harm and offence', but he has escaped punishment.

TalkSPORT presenter Alan Brazil has been found in breach of Ofcom's broadcasting code

The controversial radio presenter drew a complaint from a listener recently

Brazil had blamed Glasgow's problem on the food storage practices of Asian people who had moved to the Scottish city

During his talkSPORT breakfast show on 18 December, Brazil had been speaking to fellow presenter Mike Graham about a section of his show that was due to discuss a new type of recycling bin.

During the teaser, Brazil commented: 'I don't know if I should say this. I was talking to someone the other day and he came down from a part of Glasgow in fact where my school was. And, umm, things have changed.

'Parts of cities have changed. Because different people move in. And there's a lot of people there let's say from Asian - you know from that part of the world. But they don't, with rice and stuff, they don't, they don't store it properly.

'And he was saying, he's social housing this guy, and he said you can't believe the rat infestation we've got there. What do you mean - how? And he was telling me people just a little bit ignorant when they come in, it's a little bit damp and stuff like that, and where they store the food and stuff, he said its horrendous at the moment.'

Ofcom said that the 59-year-old ex-footballer's comments 'fell short of accepted standards'

Brazil pictured at Kempton Park racecourse in 2004 with radio DJ Mike Parry

BRAZIL'S PREVIOUS CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTS June 2006 - Used the word 'nips' to refer to the Japanese. May 2014 - Accused of making sexist remarks when discussing the rise of women in sport, saying: 'It makes me cringe when female commentators get players' names wrong.' August 2014 - Brazil said he didn't have a lot of sympathy for actor Robin Williams after he had committed suicide. He also called the situation he left behind for his family 'diabolical'. TalkSPORT did apologise for his actions. June 2015 - Used the term 'non-whites' on air in his reasoning for being against the Rooney rule, which is designed to get more ethnic minorities into top management jobs. Advertisement

The remarks prompted a complaint to be made to Ofcom, which launched an investigation.

In its defence to Ofcom, talkSPORT bosses admitted that Brazil's comments had been 'ill-judged' and should have been deleted.

Ofcom said talkSPORT Ltd apologised for 'the upset felt by [the person who had complained to Ofcom]' and said it was 'never [its] intention to upset or to offend [its] listeners, but clearly on this occasion [it had] got it wrong'.

The segment of the show was deleted on the catch-up feature on the website and a compliance manager has since been hired by talkSPORT.

However, Ofcom ruled that listeners would have expected 'greater contextualisation' of the comments, and there had been no timely on-air apology.

The breach of rule 2.3, which relates to 'harm and offence', will now be recorded on talkSPORT'S licence, but the station has escaped a fine or any other sanction.

A compliance manager has since been hired by talkSPORT in light of the incident

An Ofcom spokesperson said: 'Our investigation found that a comment made by the presenter during a discussion on food recycling fell short of accepted standards.

'The remarks had the potential to cause offence and weren't sufficiently put into context.'

A talkSPORT spokesperson said: 'We accept Ofcom's rulings - it's never our intention to offend listeners. We have taken actions to limit the offence from these comments including deleting the content from the "Listen Again" feature and refreshed our compliance processes.'