(Bloomberg) -- An ex-Commerzbank AG analyst faces a trial at a London court after he was found to have made false sexual assault allegations against a colleague in his own discrimination lawsuit that he lost.
The German lender was given permission by a London judge on Friday to hold a contempt of court hearing, which could result in a jail term, against fired employee Damilare Ajao. Lawyers for the bank claim he pursued a “bogus claim” and “lied on an industrial scale.”
Ajao, who worked as a compliance analyst, was found to have lied in a discrimination and harassment claim against the bank and his colleagues. An employment judge previously said a sexual assault claim against one colleague was “pure invention” and he was “unworthy of belief,” according to the ruling.
Lawyers for Ajao argued in court that a full trial should not be allowed to continue as the bank’s resources overpowered his. They said he had lost everything following his dismissal and loss at the employment tribunal and remains unemployed.
A lawyer for Ajao didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A Commerzbank spokesperson declined to comment.
Ajao had originally sued the bank and a group of his colleagues for a range of sex and race discrimination claims after he was fired in 2019 for what Commerzbank had called a “lack of trust in his conduct and behavior.”
The case was thrown out by an employment judge and ruled that Ajao had lied while giving evidence and fabricated evidence in a work diary. Ajao was ordered to pay £20,000 ($25,969) to the bank for costs.
“There is an obvious and clear public interest in holding to account those who deliberately tell lies in court or at a tribunal and during the course of the litigation process,” lawyers for Commerzbank said in the documents.
The most serious contempt of court finding in English courts can be punished with imprisonment but usually end up with fines or asset confiscation.
(Updates with a Commerzbank spokesperson declining to comment in the fifth paragraph)
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