Married bank boss 'leered at colleague's chest'

Father of four from Newbury had affair but denies sex discrimination

A MARRIED bank boss from Newbury had an affair with a colleague and romped with another woman in the toilet at work, an employment tribunal heard.

Robert Clegg slept with colleague Madeleine Luckham, who was head of delivery for HSBC, and told her she was not his first fling, the hearing was told.

But when they split, she said Mr Clegg, who was global head of her department, would leer at her chest, touch her in public uninvited and made her feel professionally and personally worthless.

She also told of him flirting with other women in front of her after they separated, getting “very handsy” at work with another woman and whispering in the woman's ear: “We’d have great sex.”

She also claimed to have caught him having sex in a toilet with another woman.

Ms Luckham, aged 38, from Teddington, South West London, also accused Mr Clegg of rubbing against her in meetings.

And, after confronting him about cheating on her with another woman, she was left feeling like a “cheap fill-in” as he said their relationship had been just “casual drunken sex”, the hearing was told.

Ms Luckham, who earned £550 a day as a contractor, said she was promised a permanent job with a £130,000 salary, but that never materialised after they broke up and he turned against her.

She is now suing both HSBC and Mr Clegg for sex discrimination, which both deny.

Forty-eight-year-old Mr Clegg would sleep with Ms Luckham at a hotel he used to break up his commute from Newbury.

But he told the tribunal he ended the affair in January 2018.

Mr Clegg said he regretted his actions and added: “I definitely regret those things now and have changed.”

Ms Luckham claimed the pair would play footsie under the table and be affectionate at work.

But Mr Clegg denied this.

Mr Clegg claims he ended their affair in January 2018 during a work trip to Hong Kong and that Ms Luckham demonstrated “see-saw behaviour where she was nice one moment and threatening the next.

He added: “I was petrified of what she might do day-to-day and in the long term.

“I felt she would fabricate what had or had not happened.

“I made a huge mistake and I was deeply sorry about it.

“I should not have got into a relationship at work and that is something that I have learned and I did not want to hurt her anymore than she had been hurt already.”

But she had told the tribunal she ended their relationship in April 2018 after which Mr Clegg displayed "Jekyll and Hyde" like behaviours when he would be jovial one moment and scream and blame her the next.

The father of four was fired in January last year for gross misconduct, including sexually harassing a colleague identified only as Female Two, the tribunal heard.

The disciplinary hearing also involved an allegation of inappropriate comments made at a Christmas party in December 2017.

Mr Clegg said: “I did not know about HSBC’s policy in relation to personal relationships at work and as such did not think it necessary to disclose my relationship with the claimant to... my boss at the time.

“I was therefore found to be in breach of HSBC’s policy during my disciplinary investigation.”

The hearing continues.