The Evening Standard has reported that a woman banker in the London office of a Russian bank has been awarded £3.1 million after being driven to mental collapse by a campaign of harassment and unfounded drug slurs. An employment tribunal found that Svetlana Lokhova had been a victim of harassment, victimisation and discrimination amounting to constructive dismissal. The tribunal last October ruled in her favour after hearing that colleagues at Sberbank CIB had referred to her as “Ms Bonkers” and that she had been falsely accused of being a cocaine addict. She then suffered even more agony when the false allegation that she was a drug user was put to her in evidence at the tribunal liability hearing. The tribunal increased the compensation to reflect a “deliberate” attempt to bully her on the basis that the allegation was completely without foundation and should never have been put to her in cross examination. The tribunal added that it was a deliberate, planned and unnecessary misuse of proceedings, designed to put pressure on her and cause damage to her given that it was no doubt widely publicised.

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