The serious assault of a McDonald's customer in Queenstown by a duty manager was an exception to the way staff were trained to handle "larrikin" behaviour, a McDonald's spokesman says.
When the restaurant's former duty manager, Rishi Kumar (34), "football-kicked" a customer in the head while he was on the ground on August 30, he did everything wrong in terms of McDonald's training procedures.
Speaking from Auckland this week, McDonald's New Zealand spokesman Simon Kenny said the incident had been investigated by the franchise and it found Kumar had not followed the trained steps when dealing with an aggressive or intoxicated customer.
In such an event, a manager is supposed to ask the customer to leave and if they fail to do so, to call the police or security.
Instead of this, Kumar took the matter of the intoxicated customer into his own hands.
During the 3am incident, he grabbed the customer, swung him around and punched him to the ground before standing on his torso. He then "football-kicked" the man in the head with his left foot.
"This doesn't follow any of the process and is an exception to the norm of how our staff deal with aggressive customers," Mr Kenny said.
"It is completely the opposite of what our training would encourage ... We don't condone it at all."
The man had received five stitches and a scar on his forehead, the Queenstown District Court was told on Tuesday.
Judge Kevin Phillips convicted Kumar of injuring with intent to injure and sentenced him to seven months' home detention and ordered him to pay reparation of $2200.
Despite court reports Kumar had been subject to an assault earlier this year, Mr Kenny was unaware of this. Managers had a police speed dial number for emergency incidents and Kumar had not made any attempt to use it, he said.
Queenstown police have been called to the restaurant regularly over the past 12 months.
Sergeant Derek Ealson said police had been working with McDonald's management to find a resolution to security issues at the restaurant this year.
Mr Kenny said the restaurant had since bulked up its security and employed a security guard for Thursday nights, additional to existing Friday and Saturday night coverage.
The restaurant also has 12 CCTV cameras and there are several in the O'Connells Mall food court.
