Married HSBC boss from Newbury dubbed 'Weinstein'

Madeliene Luckham, head of delivery for HSBC staff digitisation, had an affair with her boss Robert Clegg, from Newbury, who told her she was not his first fling and that he did not love his wife, she claims.

She is now suing both HSBC and Mr Cleggs for sex discrimination - which both deny.

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

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She also told of him flirting with other women in front of her after they separated.

Ms Luckham, 38, from Teddington in 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 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 for a £130,000 salary but that never materialised after they broke up and he turned against her.

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She is now suing both the company and Mr Clegg.

She told Stratford Employment Tribunal that they split up in April 2018 and she first had doubts the previous Christmas after a trip to New York when she realised she would 'break the hearts' of his four young children.

But Mr Clegg, 48, from Newbury, told the tribunal he ended the affair in January 2018 during a joint work trip to Hong Kong, where Ms Luckham had made snide comments about him in a bid to embarrass him.

In her witness statement, Ms Luckham said: "Kai Kartel (a work friend) and I discussed Rob, the way he looked at women like they were prey and the fact that he had even earned himself a nickname back at the SOMO offices, 'Weinstein'."

Ms Luckham said Mr Clegg found the conversation about his flirting with other women very distressing, apologised and blamed it on their relationship not going well.

But Mr Clegg denied most of the accusations and said he felt like his personality was under constant violent attack by Ms Luckham.

In his witness statement, Mr Clegg said: "On advice from HR, I eventually took the decision not to renew the claimant's contract which ended in August 2018 because of behavioural issues which had ruined the previously positive working culture in my team and become impossible to manage.

"I accept my share of responsibility for that in allowing my relationship with the claimant to impact my actions as manager."

He added: "However I did not discriminate against, bully or harass the claimant."

But Ms Luckham told the hearing: "I have been the victim of bullying, harassment and discrimination at the hands of HSBC and Rob in particular.

"I was victimised as a result of raising a grievance in relation to Rob's conduct.

"Ultimately I was forced out of HSBC.

"I will ask the tribunal to infer that this was because I was a woman and/or that it was part of the campaign of bullying, harassment and victimisation to which I was subject."

She added: "At HSBC women only have a voice if there is a stronger male voice behind them.

"There is a pervasive culture of sexism at HSBC in which women are objectified by their male colleagues, ignored when complaints are raised by them and frozen out of the business when they are perceived as 'difficult.'"

She told the tribunal: "What is sad about HSBC is I felt I had found a place where I wanted to stay for a long time."