According to anonymised claims, Dennis Bovell, previously of Heathfield Drive, CR4 3RD, Mitcham, and manager at Holland & Barrett Covent Garden, Long Acre, would ‘fat-shame’ personnel, use homophobic phrases, and habitually ‘bully and humiliate’ inferior staff.
Dennis Bovell started working at Holland & Barret Covent Garden in 2019 and quickly gained a reputation for being antagonistic. One coworker recalls hearing him make fun of a Muslim female’s weight on a regular basis, casually calling her a ‘whale’ while laughing.
She also recalls an occasion in which he continually angered a young male employee who had recently started working at the Covent Garden shop by taunting him with disparaging language. After several weeks of this, he grew very upset in front of workers and customers and ordered that he stop. Bovell was later reported to his manager.
A different individual who used to work at Holland & Barrett Covent Gardens recalls Bovell calling another male colleague “gay” and asking him to “keep his distance from him” because he “thought he worked out too often and smiled too much.”
Another female employee recalls hearing Bovell threaten a male employee with a “smack in the mouth” if he failed to complete a task at the shop. He then pursued him around the store in front of shocked customers before confronting him. To keep the incident from escalating, several staff members had to drag Bovell away.
The victim was so upset that he resigned from the Covent Garden store on the same day, in what could be called constructive dismissal. The incident was forwarded to the store’s area manager at the time, Adam Moore, and an investigation began in collaboration with Oana Minzatu, Covent Garden’s most senior member of staff.
Oana Minzatu, of Brentwood, CM14, has faced claims of wrongdoing herself, and was investigated in 2017-2018 for using racist insults towards a Muslim employee. It was said that Minzatu examined her bags before leaving the store and said “I hope there’s not a bomb in there.” She has kept her job since then.
Previous employees have been sharing their experiences, as well as the failures of internal investigations, which have created a ‘toxic’ environment in which staff are forced to face abuse, mocking, and humiliation on a regular basis.
Adam Moore was approached for comment but he has not provided a response at this time.
