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A Translink worker has been accused of sectarianism and suspended from work after he was unable to understand the accent of a man seeking directions to Derry.

The Scottish father-of-three, is employed by G4S at the Europa Buscentre in Belfast where he works as a security guard.

A traveller twice asked him for directions to the Derry bus and later made a formal complaint about the G4S worker, who he said was sectarian about the use of the word Derry over Londonderry.

The incident happened two weeks ago when the dad who lives in Co Down was on duty.

He was approached by a man at 5.40am who asked him where the Derry bus would be leaving from.

The traveller asked the guard twice but later reported him to Translink claiming the G4S worker had twice told him: “I don’t know what you’re on about mate.”

The disgruntled traveller made a complaint to Translink about the conduct of the worker and said he had been sectarian.

The G4S employee, who is sub-contracted to Translink in a security role, was initially suspended for two weeks with reduced pay while an investigation got underway.

But now his pay has been stopped, he is unable to work and the investigation is still ongoing.

A friend of the man who is being investigated, said: “He’s sitting at home with mouths to feed and no way of doing it. He hasn’t lived in Northern Ireland very long so he’s not that familiar with all the different accents.

“He got a letter from work asking him about the incident and he couldn’t remember anyone having a problem with him. But later he worked out that his accuser was the man whose accent he couldn’t understand.

“He’s just doing a security job, he’s not a tour guide. He has no understanding or interest in the issues around the name Derry or Londonderry, so there’s no way he could have been sectarian.

“It seems to me that some people just go out of their way to be insulted. Well he’s accusing the wrong man.

“My mate is a decent man, he’s not political, he’s working hard to support his family and he’s been accused in the wrong. Now he’s sitting at home with no pay and no explanation of what has happened or what’s going to happen and he’s getting more and more distressed.

“Meanwhile his accuser is getting on with his life. The only hope my friend has is that his bosses will see sense.”

A spokeswoman for Translink said: “We can confirm that we have received a complaint from a customer regarding an incident that took place in the Europa Buscentre on August 8.

“We take all customer complaints extremely seriously and have provided full details to our contracted security firm who are currently investigating the issue.”

A G4S spokesman said: "We take any complaint about colleagues’ behaviour very seriously and are looking into what happened in this case.”