£3.2m for banker who was branded ‘Crazy Miss Cokehead’
A HIGH-FLYING banker falsely branded ‘Crazy Miss Cokehead’ has been awarded £3.2million after her career was destroyed by sexist taunts. Cambridge graduate Svetlana Lokhova was driven to a breakdown by a campaign of sexual harassment by bullying male colleagues, an employment tribunal found.
Workmates falsely accused her of being a cocaine user and dubbed her ‘Miss Bonkers’, and said she was hired by the bank only because of her looks.
Miss Lokhova, 33, the only woman in her team, won her legal claim that she was the victim of sexual harassment and unfairly forced to leave her £750,000-a-year role. She was awarded £3.14million for lost earnings, £44,000 for hurt feelings and £ 15,000 in aggravated damages by judges at the Central London Employment Tribunal.
They ruled she was a ‘resilient person’ who had suffered ‘ disgraceful’ harassment and victimisation by colleagues in the London branch of Russian-based Sberbank CIB.
Miss Lokhova said her reputation was ‘shredded’ by the taunts and slurs, which meant she could never get another job in financial services.
She has been unable to work for more than three years and the tribunal said it accepted medical evidence that her City career was effectively over.
It heard she was tormented by colleagues on the equity sales desk of the bank, who referred to her as ‘mad Svetlana’ and said she was ‘chemically dependent’ and ‘a major car crash’.
Giving evidence last year, Miss Lokhova said: ‘ My manager and colleagues described me in sexist terms as “Miss Cokehead”, “bitch”… and “Miss Dodgy Septum” in communications made to senior people and clients. My job was made impossible. This persistent unlawful treatment has had a seriously detrimental effect on my health, with severe and long-term consequences.’
She added: ‘I am completely broken down and exhausted by the bank’s campaign against me. I can never return to financial services again, which I loved and where I was enjoying considerable success.
‘ Everybody knows everybody’s business in banking and people believe there is no smoke without fire. My reputation has been shredded.’
Former manager David Longmuir sent an email to a client in which he said he was ‘ awaiting arrival of Ms Cokehead in a puff of sulphurous smoke’. The tribunal said he should have been sacked for gross misconduct but heard he left the bank a year after Miss Lokhova resigned, and received a payout of about £170,000.
When Miss Lokhova brought her legal claim against the bank, the false allegation that she was a drug user was put to her in a public hearing, which she said had made her ordeal worse.
The tribunal said it was an attempt to bully her and awarded her aggravated damages to compensate for the ‘deliberate, planned and unnecessary misuse of these proceedings’.
Miss Lokhova took a drug test during the hearing, which was negative.
She joined the bank, which is Russia’s largest lender, in 2008 in an £80,000-ayear post. The tribunal heard her salary and bonuses increased until she was earning more than £750,000 a year.
At one point she was awarded a £600,000 cash bonus after generating profits worth millions.
Miss Lokhova said yesterday: ‘ The case has been a long, difficult and draining process which has all but taken over my life and those of people close to me. But more than three years after my ordeal began, I have found the one thing I was seeking – justice.’
Sberbank said: ‘We are committed to take on board any lessons to be learned.’
‘My job was made impossible’