£80,000 payout for banker who lost his job to a younger woman

between 2006 and 2015. Mr Marshall, who has a £1million home near Tonbridge, Kent, claimed at the hearing last week that the bank brought Australian staff in over UK executives.

He said: “My team members being counselled by Debbie were either junior members, Australian or began working for the bank in Australia.

“I raised this with Alan Docherty, who said he had not told her to do that and she shouldn’t.”

Judge David Pearl asked: “Had she just barged in with her size 11s, trampling all over your territory?”

Mr Marshall replied: “It would be strange to make an offer to [a member of] someone else’s team without clearing it with their manager first.”

After being told he would be made redundant, Mr Marshall said he found a drawer in Ms Lotz’s desk unlocked during a security review.

In the drawer he found a “target chart” from Mr Docherty detailing redundancies and how she would take his job.

Judge Pearl said: “Mr Docherty had a fairly jaundiced view of the claimant’s effectiveness in certain respects. Ms Lotz, on the other hand, was seen as an expert in managing change.”

But he added Mr Docherty, “decided to install her and there was not even a modicum of a fair procedure.

“Subsequent attempt to formalise the selection procedure was aimed, almost certainly, at future litigation.

“The dismissal was self-evidently unfair on procedural grounds.”