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Andrew Robinson & Sonia Sharma

Pizza delivery driver sacked after foul-mouthed voicemail to Sunderland mum

A delivery driver has been sacked from his job after he sent a foul-mouthed message to a North East mum.

Emily Ross, 24, ordered a kebab and a pizza after a night out with friends and intended to pay cash, but fell asleep before the food arrived.

Emily, from Sunderland, said she had "passed out at the top of the stairs" and didn't hear the delivery driver knock or her phone ringing.

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She said: "I don't even remember calling and making the order. I don't know how I even got a sentence out.

"I was devastated when I realised I'd missed him. I was starving."

The mum-of-one claims she went to phone Pasha Pizza the following morning to arrange payment, but discovered she had received an angry voicemail from the Sunderland-based takeaway.

The delivery driver's 14-second message said: "This is Pasha Pizza. You're not answering your f*****g motherf*****g phone.

"Do not call my shop any more b*****d stupid f****r."

Emily said she saw the funny side after hearing the angry voicemail (YorkshireLive)

Emily admitted she would not be sending over any payment after the rant, reports YorkshireLive.

She added: "I just thought 'what on earth?'

"I was laughing, luckily I found it funny and it didn't bother me. I didn't take it too seriously.

"It was so funny, I can't believe the way he was going off. I've never heard anything like it before.

"I was going to ring up and pay because I would never normally do that, it must be awful when people don't pay.

"If I ran a takeaway, I'd be frustrated if that happened because I bet they lose a lot of money.

"But I thought that surely I couldn't then ring up and say I've called to pay but I've received that voicemail."

Emily posted the recording on Facebook and the video has since racked up 10,000 shares.

She said: "I never expected it to go that far. Everyone finds it hilarious, some people said it's cheeky and I should storm down and ask who they're speaking to but I didn't take it too seriously.

"Some people would be offended but luckily I wasn't bothered by it.

"I've never ordered from there before and I'd been looking forward to it.

"I normally pay by bank card but I was going to pay in cash which is probably why he was raging. It must be awful when people order and don't answer the phone."

Pasha Pizza confirmed the takeaway is "aware of the presence of the voicemail online" and has since sacked the delivery driver who sent the message.

A spokesperson said: "This is not how we would operate no matter the circumstances.

"The lady in question called the shop at 00:31am on the 23rd of January 2022, 30 minutes after closing hours and begged us to take her order.

"We kindly agreed and kept five of our staff members working after they were ready to go home, we switched the equipment back on and made her order.

"However, when our driver arrived at her home there were people inside the home and he could hear them clearly laughing, he kept knocking but no one answered the door.

"He then came back to the store and was instructed to call the customer again just in case they had given the wrong address, again there was no answer.

"This went on with the shop trying to contact her until 1:27am. The driver then lost his temper and unfortunately left an angry voicemail."

The restaurant also explained they have been inundated with abuse from people who saw the clip online since the foul-mouthed rant went viral.

The spokesperson said: "Since this incident we have been subjected to over 100 harassment calls to the shop.

"We have also had people voicing that they know where the owner lives and even had one person send messages and make threats that he was going to come to the owner's home and even stated the name of the owner's next-door neighbour.

"Due to all of this we have had to contact the police who are now dealing with this situation due to the harassment and threats being made."

Northumbria Police have been contacted for comment.

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