HSBC boss ‘nicknamed Weinstein harassed colleague after affair’
A MARRIED banking boss rumoured to have been nicknamed ‘Weinstein’ had an affair with a colleague before bullying her when they split up, a tribunal heard yesterday.
Robert Clegg, 48, is also accused of having sex with another woman in a work toilet moments after he ‘destroyed’ his mistress’s career.
He began an affair with Madeleine Luckham, who was in the same department at HSBC, in October 2017.
The 38-year-old claims he admitted it was not his first extramarital fling and told her he no longer loved his wife. After they split she says Mr Clegg, who was HSBC’s global head of staff digitisation, would stare at her chest, touch her in public without invitation and made her feel worthless.
Miss Luckham claims he even suggested that she should leave the bank because he could not afford to do so.
She said: ‘I took this to mean “It cannot be me, I have four kids, I have a wife that does not work and there is potentially going to be a costly divorce”.’
Miss Luckham alleges she was the ‘victim of bullying, harassment and discrimination at the hands of HSBC and Rob in particular’ in her £550-a-day role as a contractor. Her affair with Mr Clegg began after they went for an after-work drink, the Stratford employment tribunal in East London heard.
The pair shared a consensual kiss and returned to Mr Clegg’s
‘Footsie under the table’
hotel Miss Luckham room, where to spend he invited the night but she refused. She said: ‘He told me his marriage was over and that it was a matter of financially getting to the position where he could divorce.
‘He said that he and his wife were no longer intimate, he didn’t love her any more, they led separate lives and that they were only together for the children. He also told me I wasn’t his first affair.’ Three days later, Mr Clegg invited Miss Luckham out for dinner and they had sex at his hotel. For months the pair would send messages to each other at work at an HSBC office in Southwark, south London, and would kiss, hold hands and play footsie under the table. But
Miss Luckham, from Teddington, south-west London, said the following April she saw her boss become extremely flirtatious with a woman from an external contractor.
She heard a rumour that his nickname at the outside firm was ‘Weinstein’ – after Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who is facing multiple sexual assault claims – and she said she saw him look at women ‘like prey’. Miss Luckham confronted her lover and recalled: ‘He asked for another chance and I stupidly agreed. However in the blink of an eye I discovered that he was sleeping with someone else in the office.’
She claims she ended their relationship after an ‘emotionally charged’ talk in April 2018.
She said she was ‘looking forward to moving forwards’ but soon realised they ‘weren’t functioning’ at work together. She claims he continued to ‘stare at her chest’ and ‘sexually harass’ her. She alleges she saw him having sex in a work toilet with another woman.
She brought the sex discrimination tribunal claim after she was let go and a £130,000-a-year job never materialised.
In his witness statement, Mr Clegg said: ‘On advice from HR, I eventually took the decision not to renew the claimant’s contract, which ended in August 2018, because of behavioural issues which had ruined the previously positive working culture in my team and become impossible to manage.
‘I accept my share of responsibility ... in allowing my relationship with the claimant to impact my actions as manager.’
Mr Clegg, from Newbury in Berkshire, and HSBC both deny sex discrimination.
The tribunal continues.