Worthing delivery driver Atlanta Martin banned from McDonald's branch

Atlanta Martin, 22, went to pick up an order from the branch in Worthing when staff refused to give her the customer's food.

It later emerged in a statement from the McDonald’s press department that she was banned over claims she videoed staff.

But the mum-of-one from Worthing vehemently denies this and is adamant she never posts clips that show staff members' faces.

After quitting her job as a flight attendant at Gatwick Airport in 2021 to deliver takeaway food full-time, she began documenting her life on social media, with tens of thousands of followers on TikTok and YouTube.

In her most successful video, which was viewed 2.7million times on TikTok, she walked out of McDonald’s in Worthing after waiting more than 25 minutes for an order.

• Read more: Beach restaurant to reopen after complete transformation (you can get married there)

In the video, she said: “I give up. They are getting nothing ready. There is no one doing deliveries. I’ve got a Starbucks order instead so I’ll go and do that.”

More than 1,300 people commented underneath the viral video, which was “liked” more than 140,000 times.

During her next visit to the fast-food restaurant, Atlanta was told by a member of staff: “We are not allowed to give you your orders anymore.”

A spokesman for the fast-food chain said staff asked the delivery driver to stop filming staff at work "on more than one occasion".

Atlanta Martin left her job as a flight attendant to deliver food full time (Image: SWNS)

"As the filming continued", the restaurant requested that delivery partners "turn off McDonald’s deliveries for this particular courier" to "respect the wishes of our people".

Atlanta has disputed this and said she would have stopped filming if asked and said she ensures staff members’ faces are never included in her videos.

She said: “The staff in McDonald’s have always watched my videos. They’ve never had a problem with it and have commented on them before.

"In the video, I didn’t say anything myself that negative. It was after I waited 25 minutes for an order, I walked out as no one was talking to me or anything.

"There were thousands and thousands of comments from other local people agreeing with me.”

Atlanta said she thinks she was banned because the video went viral, and it was filled with comments criticising the restaurant.

She said: "It was a bit of a shock, I ended my shift early.

"They said they asked me multiple times not to record the staff, but I never post staff's faces and crop them out of the clips to just show the item I picked up. I'm pretty angry about it.”

"I posted my opinion - not even that, the facts of what happened. I can’t control the comments online."

Atlanta said as far as she was aware, she has been permanently banned from picking up orders from the Worthing branch, but added she will carry on picking up from other McDonald's restaurants.

"I contacted McDonald’s and they said they could not override any decision of the store.

"I think I’m allowed to order for myself but I’m not going there out of principle."