A lorry driver applied for a delivery job located eight miles from where he lives, but was told by a recruitment consultant that he couldn't get an interview because he was British.
Thirty-nine-year-old Michael Fowler applied for the job via recruitment agency Blu Global, but received an email reply from Plamena Ivanova, telling him that 'our positions exclude British candidates'. Ms Ivanova - who is originally from Bulgaria - has since been sacked.
Blu Global said they were 'completely shocked' after being shown the email sent by Ms Ivanova and released a statement that denied it's one of their policies.
A spokesman for the company said: "We refute any allegations that we, as a business, discriminate in any way against our UK-based applicants.
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"No candidate is denied a chance of employment based on their nationality, age, race, gender or sexual orientation.
"We can confirm that we continuously place candidates of European and British nationality with all of our past and present clients as we advertise for, and recruit, candidates both in the UK and across mainland Europe.
"Any deviation from this policy, by any member of staff or any independent person or organisation acting under or using the Blu Global brand, is not supported in any way by the company. We will fully investigate this allegation."
Mr Fowler said he had 12 years of driving experience and had applied for the job after seeing the advert was looking for EU citizens with a good level of English 'to live and work in the EU'.
After applying through job website Indeed, he received an email that read: "Hi Michael, Are you British because our positions exclude British candidates? Kind regards, Plamena Ivanova, recruitment consultant."
"I was just gobsmacked," he said. "I thought I must have read the job advert wrong, but I hadn't.
"I work for agencies all the time. I had applied on Indeed for this job which said you had to be an EU citizen eligible to work in the UK and could speak English.
"Ten minutes later, I got the email saying: 'Are you British?'
"I didn't think too much of it at the time. I was taken aback and a bit shocked, to apply for a job that's eight miles from my house and not be able to go for it."
He continued: "I guess I was shocked because I've been doing this job for 12 or 13 years and you get drivers from everywhere. Polish drivers, English drivers, people from everywhere.
"I've never really experienced anything like this before, everyone works together normally.
"My local paper spoke to a solicitor and he said it is discriminatory and businesses shouldn't be practising that way."
Blu Global, which was founded by a Brit in 2010, is based in Wolverhampton, but was set up in Portugal. Its website claims the company has placed more than 1,500 Europeans in UK jobs since 2014, and operates in 16 countries.
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