PATRIOTIC forklift operator Adam Lawson is disgusted that he was sent home from working at South Marston Distribution Centre for wearing an England baseball cap on St George’s Day and told not to return.

Adam, 32, of Castleview Road, Chiseldon, wore the hat to a staff meeting, at the centre which stocks Honda parts, on Wednesday morning and was told to take it off by his team leader.

Adam said: “I was told that I couldn’t work while I was wearing it as it did not match uniform standards. It is ridiculous, it was St George’s Day and it was a little thing that I wanted to do to celebrate it.

“St George’s Day is part of English culture, I didn’t want to offend anyone or cause malice and I don’t believe I did.

“I’m disgusted as I’m a patriotic guy and to me it is wrong that I wasn’t allowed to celebrate English culture and was deterred from doing so as I wasn’t doing any harm.

“I think it is a sad state of affairs if we are stopped from acknowledging our culture.”

Adam, who has worked at SDC for eight months through the Pertemps agency, refused to take the cap off and was sent home.

Later in the day he received a phone call from the recruitment company, based in Commercial Road, informing him that SDC did not want him to return to work.

Adam, who lives with partner Sam Gregory and has three children Paige, six, Lexi, four, and one-year-old Jamie, said: “When I was leaving, a lot of my colleagues came up to me and said that the team leader was in the wrong and they had sympathy for me. I got the phone call at about 4pm telling me they didn’t want me back which was a shock as I’d worked really hard there.

“I’d handed my notice in on Tuesday, as I have a new job, and I think with all the redundancies going on at the minute this was just an excuse to get rid of me a few days early. I have three children to provide for so I’m pretty annoyed but I’m glad that I have a job to move on to.”

Despite several calls to SDC by the Adver yesterday, the company was unavailable to discuss Adam’s claims as their managment were in a meeting.

Pertemps also declined to comment on the matter.