City lawyer 'faked nervous breakdown to claim record £19m sex discrimination payout'

'A very plausible liar': Gillian Switalski

A lawyer in line for a record £19million payout over claims that a sexist bullying campaign ended her career was yesterday described as a liar.



Gillian Switalski, 51, said harassment and sexual discrimination at a finance company had left her 'mentally disabled' and effectively unable to work.



But lawyers for the City firm revealed that she had secretly applied for three high-powered jobs while on sick leave, and accepted a £160,000-a-year post while still claiming she could not work.



They said the married mother-of-two had an 'exit strategy' to win a seven figure compensation payout from F&C Asset Management, which controls assets worth £102billion, then resume her high-flying career.

Monica Carss-Frisk QC, for F&C, told an employment tribunal: 'The new evidence shows that she simply did not tell the truth, and was a very plausible liar.'



The tribunal had been told at an earlier hearing that Mrs Switalski's treatment at the City firm had left the self-confessed workaholic suffering from depression and unable to concentrate enough to even read a newspaper.



But yesterday's hearing was told she had applied for three jobs, including a demanding role on the organising committee of the 2012 London Olympic Games, while on sick leave.



One businessman who met her during the interview process said he was struck by her 'huge energy and drive'.



Mrs Switalski previously won an employment tribunal against the firm over her claims that she was undermined, bullied and marginalised while head of legal affairs.

She had asked for £19million to compensate her for psychiatric damage, loss of earnings, pension rights and her future career prospects.



But the firm said it had learned she had applied for other jobs after the original tribunal ruling.



It is now seeking to overturn that decision and avoid a compensation payout which is believed would be the biggest of its kind in British legal history.



Miss Carss-Frisk said: 'The evidence fundamentally undermines Mrs Switalski's credibility to the extent that some, if not all, of the evidence you heard must now be doubted.'

Mrs Switalski claims she was bullied from late 2004 and was unable to work from August 2006, when she went on sick leave following an operation.



But she applied for a job as legal director at the finance company Royal London in July 2006 and attended three interviews before being offered the job in November that year.

On the same day as one meeting her psychiatrist diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder and said she should be offered medical retirement from work.



Miss Carss-Frisk said: 'She was evidently intent to present to her psychiatrist a very different picture to what she had presented to Royal London – a picture designed to present someone who was mentally disabled, all part of a strategy to claim loss of career and compensation.'

Gillian Switalski sold her family's £3.4million home in Virginia Water, Surrey, to fund her legal fight

Mrs Switalski, who has sold her family's £3.4million home in Virginia Water, Surrey, to fund her legal fight, broke down as she insisted she had been treated unfairly at F&C.

She said: 'They had taken my career away from me and I was being forced out of the door for no reason except that face didn't fit and I was a woman.'



She said she had taken the Royal London job because she had hoped to recover, adding: 'I'm the breadwinner and I had to earn money. My husband is a teacher.



'If you are seriously suggesting I would sell my family home and go into debt of seven figures in the hope of getting something from a tribunal then I should actually be certified, not just on medication.'



The hearing continues.