The owner of a Leeds takeaway has been calling one-star Google review users “sexual predators” in review replies so they either remove the review or Google does.
Joe Scholey, 29, who owns The Otley Burger Company, has admitted he is using the Google policy to his “benefit” to remove “fake reviews”. Not only does Joe call reviewers 'predators' publicly, he has also claimed one was “dressed up in full Nazi uniform shouting racist abuse” and another was “making sexual remarks to children”.
He says the libellous loophole works every time.
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The Otley Burger Company operates in a trailer in the beer garden of The Otley Tap House, on Boroughgate in the market town centre. It currently has a 4.5 star rating on Google with a 110 reviews, at the time of publication.
Asked if he felt making light of such issues was acceptable, Joe said: “No, not really. But if you report it on Google, they don’t remove it.
"But if you say something about sexual harassment or anything to do with children, they remove it straight away. I’m just using Google’s policy to my benefit.
“They won’t remove it, as they’re like ‘this is a valid review’ even though I say they’ve never been. They’re like ‘this is still a valid review’. But the reviewer has given me a one-star for a s*** dessert and he’s not even been here – at the time, we weren’t even serving desserts.
"So then you accuse them of being ‘whatever’ and then all of a sudden, the comment is gone. If Google don’t remove it, the reviewer usually removes it themselves.”
Joe’s business has attracted controversy recently – even receiving death threats. He posted a dark “joke” about Madeleine McCann on Mother’s Day which caused outrage.
This follows similar posts in the past. He posted an image of disgraced mum Karen Matthews for last year’s Mother’s Day. He also posted images of Peter Sutcliffe, Fred West and Jimmy Saville for last year’s Father’s Day.
Joe's responses to one-star reviews
The burger boss, originally from Harehills, jokes about the one-star reviews and shares his responses on his Instagram stories. Below are examples of his posts, we’ve redacted the names as these are defamatory claims made by Joe.
To one, he responded: “Hi, I believe you were ejected because you started making sexual remarks to children in the beer garden. Unfortunately for you we don’t tolerate this sort of behaviour!!! Many thanks Joe [sic]”
Beneath in a caption on Instagram, Joe said to his followers: “Chat s*** get banged. Probably not a nonce, but can’t be too careful.”
To another one star-reviewer, he wrote: “Hi unfortunately you were asked to leave as you were dressed in a full Nazi uniform shouting racist abuse… we do not tolerate that.”
Underneath, to his followers, Joe wrote in a caption: “That’s racist.”
Joe responded to another one-star review, who simply left the comment "Disgusting", with the message: “Hi, unfortunately you were asked to leave because you tried sexually assaulting a member of staff after 2 jäger bombs. Sexual assault isn’t funny and the police have been informed… you should be disgusted with your self… shame on you!!”
Joe said in a caption below: “If I accuse fake reviewers of being predators, the review gets removed…don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
To another one-star reviewer, he said: “Thanks unfortunately we had to remove you from the property as you apparently tried to sexually assault a member of the public. Not cool. Not legal shame on you.”
Subjects Joe 'can't joke about'
LeedsLive asked Joe if there was any topic he wouldn’t joke about. The 29-year-old said: “There is certain stuff that you can’t talk about or joke about. That’s the Holocaust, 9/11 and the war in Ukraine. Stuff like that is proper horrendous and no one’s got anything to gain from sharing anything like that.”
Pushed for an answer about how his 'jokes' affect the families of victims of the serial killers he joked about, Joe responded: “The context of the jokes, with Fred and Rose West, we only used a picture and put a burger in their hand. There’s nothing offensive by that. Those offended are offended by that person’s actions but we’re just sharing a picture of them, like any picture you find on the news.”
Google has been asked for a comment about its policy and Joe’s actions.
What do you think of Joe’s technique of removing one-star Google reviews? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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