Hotel owner inflicted Basil Fawlty-style attack on former waiter

A real-life Basil Fawlty was captured on CCTV slapping a balding foreign waiter before dragging him across the lobby and throwing him out of the hotel. Robert Hardman, 54, flew into a rage when former employee Sorin Paraschiv came back into the hotel to claim £800 in past wages after he left his job weeks earlier.



Hardman, who runs the three-star Plough Hotel in Northampton, was captured on CCTV pushing Romanian-born Sorin under the front desk and slapping him around the face and head. The clip taken from the hotel’s security cameras then shows a female receptionist rushing to the aid of the man before remonstrating with Hardman and urging him to stop. Seconds later Hardman is seen dragging the middle-aged man through the hotel lobby by his shirt collar before hurling out of the front doors.

The footage of the attack was released after Hardman pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm at Northampton Crown Court on Monday. The court heard the victim suffered injuries to his lip, eye, nose and his two front teeth were fractured. He was spared prison, to allow him to continue working at the hotel, and received a seven month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.


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Judge Rupert Mayo said it was a “shocking” attack which took place in front of another member of staff. He said: “After more than 50 years without any problems you lost it. The footage shows you lost it. It may well have been somebody who you did not think deserved to take the money but you are a manager of a medium sized hotel and it was humiliating for him. This is not the way for an employer to behave.”