‘Unprecedented’ | 'Landmark case' for tribunals as employee jailed after fabricating harassment claims

A former Commerzbank analyst has been jailed for contempt of court after fabricating serious allegations of sexual harassment and assault against his manager, in what lawyers say is a landmark moment for Employment Tribunal proceedings.

Damilare Ajao, who worked in the bank’s customer services team, was originally sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment. The Court of Appeal later reduced that term to eight months after finding the wrong sentencing guidelines had been applied. The court refused to suspend the sentence.

Lord Justice Clive Lewis said Ajao had “shown no remorse or understanding of what he has done is wrong”.

Background of the case

Ajao was employed in Commerzbank’s client lifecycle management team in London between May and November 2019, working as a know your customer (KYC) analyst, his performance was closely assessed. It was “of fundamental importance that KYC analysts [are] able and willing to accept and learn from constructive feedback”, the tribunal noted.