A worker at a lap-dancing club was caught on tape threatening to plant drugs on one of his workers, an employment tribunal heard.

Johnny Singh, 21, from Crawley, who worked on the floor of the Spearmint Rhino club near Heathrow, was told by the general manager Stuart Dobson he could find a "wrap of cocaine" in his pocket and fire him if he did not accept redundancy.

Mr Singh said in a statement yesterday to the tribunal in Reading he thought company managers were trying to "intimidate" him after he had earlier tried to highlight "inappropriate behaviour" by dancers at the company's clubs.

He met Mr Dobson shortly after he was transferred to the Spearmint Rhino club in Colnbrook, commonly known as the Heathrow club, from the company's venue in Uxbridge in March this year.

In his statement, Mr Singh said while in Uxbridge he tried to report obscene behaviour by dancers to his managers.

However, he said whenever the dancers were fined or disciplined as a result, the action would be reversed by the company's president, Stuart Cadwell.

Mr Singh said shortly after he was transferred to the Colnbrook club he was confronted by the company's vice-president Phil Reid, who was angry he was wearing a suit instead of a uniform. Mr Singh claimed he had been told to wear a suit because he was to train as a manager.

However, shortly afterwards, he was approached by another manager, Neil Dahms, and was told Mr Dobson had decided to make him redundant.

The hearing was played Mr Singh's tape-recording of his meeting with Mr Dobson on April 15, three days after he had received a letter confirming he had been made redundant.

In the recording, Mr Dobson told Mr Singh: "If the company don't want to make you redundant they will find a reason and they will fire you.

"If I want to fire you, I can fire you - all I've got to do is put some drugs in your pocket. It's your word against mine."

Mr Singh told the tribunal he taped the meeting with Mr Dobson because he felt he needed some sort of protection.

Mr Singh, whose job it was to keep a record of the number of dances each dancer performed, is claiming unfair dismissal against Spearmint Rhino Ventures (UK) Ltd and RKW Ltd.