A London councillor has been forced to resign from his role after abusing staff in a branch of Costcutter.
On Saturday 12 July Conservative deputy councillor, Shiva Tiwari, went into a Costcutter store on Finchley Road in London to collect a parcel - but the resulting fallout of his appalling behaviour there has now forced him to resign from both the party and council.
Convenience Store spoke to store owner Rakesh Bhimjiyani after he approached us in a state of disbelief after the event, which he said left him bewildered as to how someone representing authorities who have in recent months pledged much tougher action on retail crime – could himself be a perpetrator.
“It just defies belief that somebody in the position they’re in can behave like this,” he said.
After being unable to collect his parcel due to not only having a photo of the correct ID on his phone, which was not acceptable, Rakesh says Tiwari became argumentative. This led to what Rakesh describes as a 30-minute torrent of foul language and abuse that was witnessed by children, and even lead to the politician pushing a member of staff as he tried to get into ‘staff only’ areas in an attempt to find his parcel.
“Within the first three sentences, he’s being abusive…”
“He’s the deputy leader of the Conservative council and basically from the get-go - as we can see on our CCTV [footage] - when he came in, [there were] no hellos, nothing - and within the first three sentences, he’s being abusive,” Rakesh added.
The store has a policy of always having three members of staff on duty at weekends due to the high levels of abuse it faces – an issue this Government and the Conservative opposition have long been on a mission to reduce.
Rakesh continued: “Because we didn’t turn around and get his parcel and staff were refusing to give it to him, he started looking through the drop off bag that customers had left - against GDPR rules.
“Secondly, he started going through the boxes kept nearby for Inpost, and obviously he’s not finding his parcel because his from UPS and is in our most secure area.
“He then realises there’s a backroom where the staff are getting other customers’ parcels and he tries to gain access to that, but the staff point out it’s for employees only. So he gave them a 30-second countdown. Then after 30 seconds he tried to barge his way through…”
Thankfully, despite the tussle, which is clearly visible on footage shared with Convenience Store, no one was injured. The police were called and arrived quickly, taking the conversation outside the shop.
Tiwari returned to the store around half an hour later, Rakesh says, and collected his parcel. In response to the situation, Tiwari provided a statement on yesterday evening (17 July) to local newspaper, The Camden New Journal.
Statement from Shiva Tiwari
“I regret my part in the verbal dispute with the shop. But I suspect many of us as human beings have experienced such frustration when confronted by someone very rude, who in this case also refused to hand over my parcel for no reason. The matter was however settled there and then. I apologised for my part in the disagreement and collected my package. Everyone, whatever their job, deserves to be treated respectfully.
“I have now tendered my resignation from the Conservatives and Camden and won’t be standing again.”
Rakesh says while his staff didn’t wish to press charges, which he fully respects, he had full backing of both UPS and Costcutter – the latter of which he has been a member of for 26 years, with the store itself having been in the family for 39 years.
He concluded: “I want as many people to know about this as possible purely because this sort of behaviour, especially from somebody who is supposed to represent the local community, well, how can you trust somebody like that?”
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