A father-of-four called a Border Force officer at Manchester Airport a 'Rochdale paedo' after he was caught with 14,000 cigarettes in his luggage, a court heard.
Michael Legros, 32, and his partner, Heidi Mullis, were stopped with their young children after landing at the airport on March 24, 2020, following a family holiday in Bali. Legros began aggressively pacing up and down with his fists clenched while his suitcases were searched. The court heard he turned to the officers and called them 'scruffy c****' before telling them: "You only earn £20,000 a year - just keep the cigarettes".
Zahra Baqri, prosecuting at Liverpool Crown Court, said Legros told one of the officers, who was Asian, that he looked like a 'Rochdale paedo'. The officer, who was not named in court, was heard to be physically shaken by the racial abuse. The court heard he had been racially abused before in the job, but the latest incident 'really shook him'.
