Married banker ‘pimped out’ to her rich Arab customer
A MARRIED banker was ‘pimped’ out by her boss to a wealthy Arab client who had £25million to invest, a tribunal heard yesterday.
Suemaya Gerrard said the client bombarded her with love songs and called her his ‘rosy flower’.
But when she tried to dodge a dinner date with the millionaire, she says her ‘annoyed’ boss threatened her with the sack if she did not go.
Mrs Gerrard, a 36-year-old mother, said there was ‘huge pressure’ to get the £25million of business. She confided her boss’s demands to a colleague, who told her: ‘He is acting like your pimp’, it was claimed.
Mrs Gerrard, a relationship manager at the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank in Knightsbridge, is suing the bank and her boss – chief administrative officer Jawdat Jawdat – for sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and constructive dismissal. They deny all three claims.
The wealthy Arab was named only as Client A at Central London Employment Tribunal.
When the bank learned that he was considering opening an account with £25million, Mrs Gerrard was assigned to liaise with him from the bank’s office in the exclusive One Hyde Park building.
She told the tribunal: ‘This gentleman made it clear that he was attracted to me. Client A made use of my telephone to send me love songs and use terms of endearment that I found inappropriate.’
This included texting her saying ‘Hello my rosy flower’, she said, adding that her investment manager husband had seen some of the messages.
‘Some of the text messages I deleted, because my husband saw them and said “What is this?”,’ she said.
‘And therefore I deleted some of the love songs. Because it was my marriage on the line. He was up at 3 o’clock in the morning and he saw flowers and love songs. It caused a huge row.’
On May 17 last year she was told by Mr Jawdat to invite the client to an England football match at Wembley.
She said: ‘To my mind, the subClient
‘Huge pressure to get that money’
text was quite clear. Mr Jawdat was aware of Client A’s partiality for me and wished to use that to further the business connection.
‘The customer was going to bring £25million to the bank. There was huge pressure for me to get that money.’
She said the Arab was ‘not interested in football but was interested in taking me out to dinner’.
‘There was no business reason for such a dinner that was to be held late in the evening,’ she said. ‘I declined the offer politely but A kept on insisting to invite me out for dinner.
‘When I reported the conversation to Mr Jawdat, he seemed annoyed. He told me that I had to accept the dinner invitation and he also threatened me by saying “if you cancel or call off sick I will sack you”.
‘I replied that he knew that I was a married woman with children, and that I could not do it. Mr Jawdat then stated I was in the wrong profession.
‘I informed my work colleague Mrs Shukri Hassan upon leaving the meeting of what had happened and how Mr Jawdat behaved. Mrs Shukri Hassan stated “He is acting like your pimp”.’
Mrs Gerrard resigned from the bank last November, and is claiming £80,000. The tribunal heard she threatened to go to the press if her case was not resolved ‘satisfactorily’. Talia Barsam, representing the bank, said: ‘Was it the case you were hoping somebody was going to come to you and offer you some money?
‘You are basically threatening if you are not paid a sum of money. It’s a threat, isn’t it, to the bank?’
Mrs Gerrard replied: ‘I wanted to make everyone know this is unfortunate, in a British society, where everyone is equal. Women have got rights, but unfortunately the Arabic culture is being implemented here. This is the first ever stage of my life I have raised a grievance.’
The tribunal heard that Mr Jawdat had said: ‘Regardless of gender, regardless of customer, we always interact with customers and we always dine with customers. That’s it, that’s exactly what happened in that day.’
The tribunal continues.