A banker jailed after he 'made up' sexual harassment claims against a female manager has had his sentence more than halved by appeal judges.
Damilare Ajao, who worked in London for German finance giant Commerzbank, said the manager 'flirtatiously' told him she could see his nipples and tried to touch his Gucci belt in the staff canteen.
He brought an Employment Tribunal claim against the bank but his 'simply false' allegations were dismissed and Commerzbank filed a contempt of court claim against Ajao.
The former banker was found guilty of 12 counts of contempt at the High Court last year and jailed for 20 months.
But he only served three days before being bailed pending appeal and saw his term reduced to eight months on Thursday.
Two Court of Appeal judges found sentencing guidelines had been misapplied in Ajao's case but refused to suspend his jail term.
He was taken immediately to Pentonville Prison to begin his reduced term.
Ajao had worked in Commerzbank's Gresham Street offices in the City of London between May and November 2019.
Ajao, pictured outside the High Court last year, had his sentence for contempt of court reduced from 20 months to eight months on Thursday
After being sacked from the client life cycle management team, Ajao brought an Employment Tribunal claim against the bank alleging sexual harassment and sexual assault against his manager.
Identified in court only as 'Ms Q', Ajao said she made a sexualised comment about a string vest he was wearing being visible through his shirt and he had been forced to slap her hand away when she reached out towards his designer belt.
He said the manager told him 'I fancy you' and said she could see his skin and nipples through his shirt on multiple occasions over months.
The bank said Ajao's Employment Tribunal effort was a 'wholly bogus claim of sexual assault and harassment'.
His claim was dismissed in April 2024 after Judge Anthony Snelson said although Ajao's vest was mentioned, his allegations were 'simply false' and 'in large part made up'.
Commerzbank took the case to the High Court last year to have Ajao jailed for contempt of court.
In November Mr Justice Martin Spencer found him guilty of 12 counts of contempt - he was jailed for 20 months and ordered to pay £150,000 towards the bank's legal bills.
Ajao, who lives in Medway, Kent, said it was his 'perception' he had been the victim of sexual harassment and assault, adding he was not deliberately untruthful.
But the bank's barrister Louis Browne KC said that did not fit with his argument at the tribunal, nor with the way he gave evidence at the High Court.
'He was very clear in what he said in his Employment Tribunal claims - not that there was a perception that he was sexually harassed or assaulted,' he argued.
'His case was very clear: these events happened and there was a clear intent and motive behind them. He was given ample opportunity to row back from these allegations.'
But Ajao's barrister Sasha Wass KC said the bank had put its contempt case on the basis that Mr Ajao's accusations were 'wholly bogus' and knowingly so.
However she said there was 'foundation in evidence' for everything he said, with the manager Ms Q accepting in her evidence that there had been a conversation - although innocent - about his string vest.
Ajao's sentence was reduced after a hearing at the Court of Appeal, inside London's Royal Courts of Justice
The judge said Ms Q had been 'entirely honest and credible'.
She had never said she could see Ajao's nipples but only spoke to him in the context of a friendly relationship between people who sometimes talked about fashion.
The effect on Ms Q had been 'predictably serious' according to the judge.
She said she had felt like a 'criminal' and described her ordeal as 'insulting and painful,' resulting in her taking sleeping medication.
Ajao had also tried to cover up his lack of reporting the allegations at the time by saying he felt Ms Q was sensitive due to a family bereavement.
But the judge said that was a 'cynical' attempt to 'exploit genuine grief,' part of a 'fictitious' set of allegations which amounted to a 'serious contempt of court.'
Ajao said Ms Q's comments and alleged attempted sexual assault were the culmination of a pattern of behaviour over the summer and autumn of 2019 but the judge said it was instead a 'deliberate and wicked assault' on her professional standing.
He said there were 'such discrepancies, inconsistencies and impossibilities' in Ajao's evidence it was 'quite incapable of acceptance'.
'The more I heard of his evidence the more I became sure his evidence was untrue and deliberately so,' he added.
He added there 'wasn't a shred of truth' in any of Ajao's claims, finding they were 'a deliberate attempt to deceive the tribunal'.
Ajao was sentenced to 20 months in prison for contempt of court but on Thursday two Court of Appeal judges cut his sentence to three months, less three days already served, after finding sentencing guidelines had been misapplied.
The court heard Ajao had lost his successful finance career and now relies on benefits, while his marriage ended and he now lives alone.
However Lord Justice Lewis and Lord Justice Miles refused to suspend Ajao's sentence and let him walk free after he showed 'no remorse' or any sign of 'understanding what he did was wrong'.
Lord Justice Lewis said: 'We do regard these as very serious contempts.
Ajao had worked for German finance giant Commerzbank until 2019, after which he brought his Employment Tribunal claim
'He made false allegations deliberately and over a period of time and he fabricated evidence in order to obtain damages.'
He said Ajao's actions 'strike at the heart of the administration of justice' and jail time was the only 'appropriate punishment'.
But he said the High Court judge applied the wrong sentencing guidelines in Ajao's case.
Re-sentencing, Lord Justice Lewis said Ajao's young children, who live with their mother, counted as mitigation and reduced his sentence by 12 months.
He served three days in prison after being sentenced last year before being bailed pending his return to court on appeal - this was taken off his amended sentence.
'We regard a sanction of eight months' imprisonment, having regard to the seriousness of the offences and the mitigating factors, is the shortest that can be imposed,' the judge said.
The judges also allowed Ajao's appeal against one of the 12 contempt findings but said it had been a 'small, essentially trivial' part of the allegations and did not impact on the length of his sentence.
Ajao was taken immediately to begin serving his sentence in Pentonville Prison.
