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A benefits investigator denied being a racist even though she called Asian police officers “DC Chapati” and “PC Poppadom”.

Senior fraud buster Natalie Green admitted using the insults while working at the Department for Work and Pensions, but denied other vile racial slurs.

They emerged at an employment tribunal where the shamed civil servant lost her unfair dismissal claim against the DWP.

Colleagues also alleged she called Muslims “muzzas” and Chinese people “chinkies”.

Green claimed: “None of those are words I use.”

(Image: PA)

Staff had “resigned themselves to having to tolerate her behaviour”, the tribunal was told.

But Green confessed during the hearing to using the names “PC Poppadom”, “DC Chapati” and “JF” – short for Johnny Foreigner.

Green’s lawyer also conceded she called a Chinese friend “a chink in the curtain” but insisted other ­attributed phrases were “fabricated”.

Green, of Eastwell, Leics, who worked at East Midlands serious and organised crime unit, brought forward her retirement in April 2018, after bosses began a probe.

She was initially awarded £15,000 damages for unfair dismissal but the DWP successfully appealed.

Employment judge Kirti Jeram dismissed her Nottingham tribunal claim, saying: “I found Ms Green to be inconsistent. I find the claimant did use derogatory language.”

But Green, who now runs a spa near Melton, insisted: “The judge’s outcome is an opinion, not a fact. I am not and have never been racist.”

A Government spokesman said: “We do not tolerate racism and welcome the tribunal decision.”