UPDATE: New Star claims Evershed not afraid to exaggerate

New Star's lawyer has hit back at claims from former fund manager Patrick Evershed that up to 20 staff were signed off because of stress, claiming Evershed is not afraid "to exaggerate".

Evershed claimed during Thursday's session that up to 20 New Star managers were signed off with "mental sickness" due to the behaviour of New Star founder John Duffield.

Bullying on the trading floor was an almost daily occurrence, "except Mondays when Duffield wasn't present", Evershed said yesterday.

However, countering the claims, New Star's lawyer Daniel Oudkerk said Friday morning: "You cannot point to a single fund manager who was off sick". He added Evershed was "not afraid to exaggerate".

Yesterday Evershed also alleged he was given a reprimand after asking Duffield whether he thought "Gordon Brown was a prudent Chancellor". The tribunal heard Duffield created "a terrible atmosphere of intimidation".

Under cross-examination, Oudkerk challenged Evershed's version of events. The press and MPs were "a tool you were not afraid to use", said Oudkerk.

In an email dated 9 April 2009 addressed to Chessy Smith at New Star, Evershed wrote he was "closely in touch" with MP Michael Fallon, and was "asking him to put pressure on the FSA" regarding New Star's dealings.

"I will go on till I win, and I am used, if necessary to exerting political pressure to get what I want," the email read.

Property fund manager Roger Dossett, introduced to New Star by Evershed, was also alleged to have been bullied by Duffield.

But Dossett is expected to give evidence for New Star next week, saying that he did not see Evershed being bullied, and was not bullied himself.

"John has never bullied me, and has never interfered with the running of my fund," he is expected to say.

The idea that Evershed waited three years before submitting a written complaint about the bullying of Dossett was "entirely fanciful", Oudkerk said.