AN 18-stone, 6ft 4in man claims staff at Burger King said he was “too big” when the chair he was sitting on collapsed.

Kyle Smithson was eating his breakfast – a big Whopper and a chicken royal – in the restaurant’s Brighton branch in North Street on Tuesday morning.

The 32-year-old said: “I went in with my mate from work, took a seat, and ate my food.

“As I was shuffling to get up, the bench fell down.

“I fell t** over a*** and my mate was laughing.

“I got up wondering what had gone on.

“At the time I was laughing too, mostly in shock.

“But then I noticed my back really hurt and I thought this isn’t on.

“So I went back and filled out an incident report.

“That’s when I overheard staff saying the bench fell down because a customer was ‘too big’.

“What do they expect?

“It’s Burger King.

“It’s not my fault I’m a big guy.

“This is just body shaming.”

Mr Smithson is a carpenter, and said the bench was poorly put together.

“There was a bit of plywood out at an angle and it looked like it was only held together with one screw,” he said.

After the incident, the broken booth was cordoned off with a sign that read “this section is closed”.

Mr Smithson said he had to go to the doctors after experiencing back problems at work later that day.

He claims he was told he had an injury resembling whiplash.

He said: “I just didn’t expect it.

“It’s not what you think’s going to happen when you go to sit down.”

Burger King would not comment.