Blackpool restaurateur turns detective to track down alleged internet troll to Belmont

Steve Hoddy, the owner of Bispham Kitchen in Blackpool, discovered a series of what he says were false and malicious reviews on Tripadvisor, including claims that the “owner stares at you weirdly” and that food had made customers ill.

Following a long process of amateur detective work, which started in 2018, Mr Hoddy unmasked the anonymous reviewer as 44-year-old Martin Stewart Potts from Belmont.

The Blackpool restaurateur said: “He picked on the wrong bloke. I’ve got two law degrees including a first class honours degree from Queen’s College Cambridge.”

Trolling: Mr Hoddy says he discovered several malicious comments

He added: “I’ve actually specialised in defamation law so eventually in court it just became a turkey shoot.”

Mr Hoddy was able to track Mr Potts down by piecing together his identity from details left in various posts, including the fact that he lived in Belmont – and his height.

The restaurateur then travelled to the village on the outskirts of Bolton where he identified Mr Potts after speaking to a local landlord before confronting him in the street.

Online: Mr Hoddy says more needs to be done to tackle such behaviour

Mr Hoddy then used his legal knowledge to bring a civil case against Mr Potts which culminated this year when Manchester County Court ordered Mr Potts to pay £6,000 in compensation for spreading malicious falsehoods as well as claimant’s costs of £1,545.

The businessman now says he wishes to highlight the wider issue of the damage done by malicious online comments.

He said: “First of all I think it could be easier for the victims of this kind of hate to find out who is doing it.”

He recommended that companies like Google and TripAdviser should make use of identity checks and make it easier to identify who has made certain comments.

But Mr Potts denies having made many of the comments and says he had visited Mr Hoddy’s businesses on just two occasions.

He says that from the beginning he had tried to mediate and that Mr Hoddy is instead simply trying to prevent criticism – a claim dismissed as 'ludicrous' by the restaurateur.

Reviews: One of the comments said that the Mr Hoddy "stares at you weirdly

Mr Potts said: “I left about two comments. I hadn’t left the other ones, but it went to the civil court and I couldn’t get legal aid and I had to do it all myself.

“To be quite honest its been a nightmare. I don’t know anything about law, I couldn’t get legal aid and you know as well as I do how much they charge by the hour.”

Mr Potts said he had been unable to attend court due to possibly testing positive for Covid-19 but that this had not been passed on to the judge.

He said: “I shouldn’t have called him a weirdo. He was staring at me but I didn’t know he was the owner at the time.

" He didn’t smile and it just felt a bit strange.”

Mr Hoddy responded: "I accept criticism so long as it is reasonable and for him to leave different reviews clearly is unreasonable.”