Saleswoman faked doctor's note about cancer care

A saleswoman faked a doctor's note about cancer treatment and lied about evidence of sexual assaults in two failed employment tribunals, a court has heard.

Louise Gallagher made a sex discrimination claim against distribution and outsourcing company Bunzl after leaving her job there in 2018, and later made an unfair dismissal claim after leaving her job at health product supplier Essity in 2023.

In both cases, she made "strikingly similar" claims she had been sexually harassed, but these were dismissed when she was found to have repeatedly lied.

At Wood Green Crown Court on Tuesday, 50-year-old Gallagher, from Marlborough, Wiltshire, admitted three counts of perverting the course of justice.

She was bailed ahead of sentencing on 19 May.

Two further allegations of perverting the course of justice, relating to her disputed claims of sexual assault, are set to lie on file.

A 2024 employment tribunal ruling sets out how Gallagher alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a Bunzl colleague, shortly after an investigation was launched into whether she had submitted a fraudulent bill for a hotel stay on expenses.

While mounting a case against the firm in 2020 and 2021, she made a series of false claims that Transport for London (TfL) had CCTV footage to support her sexual assault allegation.

But TfL denied providing Gallagher with information, and told Bunzl's lawyers that any CCTV footage would already have been wiped.

When the defendant's case began to unravel, she produced a bogus note apparently signed by a leading doctor claiming she was "fighting for her life" and needed a two-year adjournment so she could receive treatment for breast cancer.

Gallagher's tribunal claim was thrown out, and she was ordered to pay £8,000 to cover Bunzl's legal costs.

She has admitted "manufacturing" emails from the Metropolitan Police, supposedly from 2022 and 2023, to support her claim that there was an eyewitness to a sexual assault when she worked at Essity.

Employment Judge Rebecca Eeley concluded that Gallagher had a "propensity to lie" to gain an advantage, and she had "knowingly misled" the tribunal about the existence of TfL evidence via a "forged or doctored document".

Gallagher first made claims of sexual harassment and bullying against Essity when she was placed under investigation by the company for allegedly falsifying documents and being dishonest.

The judge concluded that Gallagher had "repeatedly provided false evidence during the course of these employment tribunal proceedings.

"She has directly deployed and tried to rely on such dishonest evidence in letters to the tribunal and in her claim."

Gallagher is to be assessed by a psychiatrist ahead of her sentencing hearing.

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