HEADING TO WORK this morning, Bristol man Rayhan Qadar thought he would give his 1,294 followers a laugh… with the above tweet.
The plan backfired. Badly.
Within minutes, 93 retweets had reached the eyes of local police who began to investigate a possible collision.
Great Manchester Police also tweeted the 21 year old about coming forward.
Despite later tweets confirming that he had not hit a cyclist – “Not today. Not ever.” – Qadar was already in hot water.
His employer Hargreaves Lansdown wasn’t impressed. They issued a statement to local press and BBC News stating that the employee had “failed to conduct themselves to the standards we expect of our staff”.
“Upon becoming aware of this issue we have terminated this person’s employment with immediate effect,” the spokesperson for the stockbroker added.
Speaking to the BBC himself tonight, Qadar said the message was a “dumb mistake”.
“A bad joke on my part it seems,” he said earlier on Twitter.
Sorry if anyone thought i actually hit a cyclist. Anyone who follows me on Twitter know 99% of the things I tweet is nonsense.
Following news of his sacking, Twitter has started the backlash to the backlash, claiming the company has overreacted to what was obviously a joke.
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