A man who was sacked by Savills for posting a racist tweet following England’s defeat in the Euro 2020 final has pleaded guilty to the offence at Manchester City Magistrates Court.
Andrew Bone, who worked for Savills as a commercial building manager, had previously maintained his Twitter account had been hacked. However, an investigation uncovered previous hateful comments on social media as well as cell site data revealing the device used to post the comment was in the same location as Bone at the time.
Bone made his post on Twitter at 11pm on 11 July 2021, with a racist comment directed at three players who had missed penalties in the final. He deleted the tweet along with his Twitter account the following morning, but not before it had been reported to Savills and the police.
He was initially suspended by Savills pending an investigation and was dismissed in September 2021.
Bone, 41, from Sale, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to sending a grossly offensive message.
Martin Bogan, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West, said, “Andrew Bone took to social media to post a hateful racist comment, and in doing so, he broke the law. He removed the post soon after, but in the meantime the message was reported to his employer by a concerned social media user.
“Bone, thinking he could escape justice, concocted a story that he had been hacked, which he repeated to his employer, the police and the court. Today, when faced with the strength of the prosecution case, he eventually admitted that he had posted the comment.”
He will be sentenced on 4 February 2025.
Photo by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
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