Boss fired ‘naughty girl’ banker who rejected advances
Investment company chairman ‘eyed up’ and ‘constantly’ humiliated his second-in-command
‘The behaviour ... was inextricably linked to the fact that [Ms Crabtree] was a woman’
A SENIOR female executive whose male boss referred to her as a “naughty girl” then fired her after she rejected his advances has won £100,000 for sexual harassment.
Marc Bandemer, a married 59-yearold, swamped Louise Crabtree with adoring messages, complimented her “fashion model” looks and bought her a diamond “commitment” ring, an employment tribunal heard. The 49-year-old mother of three said she was “constantly” humiliated and degraded by the investment company chairman, who referred to her as “girl”, “brat” and “naughty” in front of colleagues in an attempt to reinforce “his idea” that he “owned” her.
During a work trip to Luxembourg, Mr Bandemer “eyed” the executive “up and down” while she was in a swimming costume and on one occasion “physically pulled” her on to his lap in front of her partner. He also offered to buy the pair a “love nest” in Cyprus and flattered her “gorgeous feet” and “candy toes”.
Despite feeling “totally helpless” and as if she was “his property”, Ms Crabtree ignored his advances because she “did not want to rock the boat”. But as his attempts to court her “intensified”, she asked him to stop. In retaliation, Mr Bandemer “punished” his second-in-command with demotion and dismissal from her £124,000-a-year job, leaving her “ousted from the boys’ club”.
After successfully suing him for sexual harassment, she has been awarded £99,214 in compensation, with an employment judge saying the boss’s behaviour was not acceptable.
The hearing Southampton was told that Ms Crabtree, from nearby Romsey, joined the investment management company Integer Wealth Global as executive director in April 2021. Initially, the relationship between her and Mr Bandemer was “friendly with banter” but then began to involve “inappropriate” comments. In May 2021, a meeting transcript revealed him asking her: “Why did God make you so naughty?” That was followed by an admission he was “way too arrogant” to care what other colleagues would think about his remark.
Ms Crabtree’s failure to “strenuously object” to comments she disliked did not necessarily mean that she “welcomed them or that they were wanted”, the panel said.
In September 2021, Ms Crabtree made it clear to her boss that comments of a sexual nature were “no longer welcome”, but this was ignored, leading her to “feel trapped”. In May 2022, Mr Bandemer became “much more hostile” towards her and she was frozen out of the company’s plans to move to Luxembourg and effectively demoted to sales director. Ms Crabtree said she was being punished “for rejecting his advances”.
Upholding her claims of discrimination and harassment, employment judge James Dawson said: “We are satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the behaviour of [Mr Bandemer] was inextricably linked to the fact that [Ms Crabtree] was a woman. Awarding her compensation, he said: “There was a period of harassment when [Ms Crabtree] was asking Marc Bandemer to stop and he was not respecting this ... She did not bring it on herself and it was not acceptable.”