A barrister who made dozens of "vexatious" employment tribunal claims has been banned from bringing further actions.

John Iteshi, who qualified as a barrister in 2007 but failed to obtain a pupillage, made his first claim for racial discrimination againt British Telecom when it turned him down for a paralegal job. In a sign of things to come, Iteshi argued that the CVs of other black candidates which BT produced at the tribunal were fabricated on the basis that "it was well known that black women did not go to Oxford or Cambridge". He also accused the judge of "fraud, lack of credibility, evasion, dodging and failure to respond". His case was thrown out.

But that didn't stop Iteshi plugging away, even after he was employed as a customer service assistant by Transport for London. He took TfL to tribunals four times for racial discrimination. And he brought 25 actions against other companies, alleging sex and race discrimination on behalf of people whose job applications were rejected. All his claims were unsuccessful.

He fights for those who cannot fight for themselves, and loses

An investigation by the Treasury solicitor's department concluded that almost all were also "weak or hopeless and conducted vexatiously". The Attorney General agreed that such a stunning record of failure merited closer attention, and applied to have Iteshi barred. Following a ruling by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), Iteshi has been banned from bringing employment-related legal proceedings unless he receives permission from the EAT first.

Iteshi dismissed the EAT as "crooked individuals hiding behind judicial immunity and their evil cloak of infallibility" and said, "Hopefully I will not die before I have done my bit to enlighten the world".