Banker suspended after Sunday Mirror challenges Deutsche Bank over £10 taunt to nurses and doctors
by Nick Owens, Sunday Mirror 13/03/2011
A bonus-happy banker taunts nurses and doctors marching below by waving a £10 note...
Mistaking medics chanting “Save Our NHS” and “No More Cuts” for an unemployed mob, he sneeringly mouths: “Get a job.” A laughing friend shares his sick joke.
Last night the smirk was wiped off the banker’s face after the Sunday Mirror showed the picture to German giant Deutsche Bank in London.
Bosses at the firm where investment bankers are on a basic of £350,000 – plus bonuses averaging £54,000 – immediately suspended him.
Angry Dr Ron Singer, chairman of the Medical Practitioners’ Union, who was on the NHS Day X march on Tuesday, said: “It was shocking to see people acting in this way when we passed the bank.
“If it wasn’t for the greed of bankers the economy wouldn’t be in such a mess and there’s a good chance the NHS wouldn’t have to be making devastating cuts.
“We were marching for the rights of ordinary people. To be abused like this was sickening.”
Nurse Sonia Thomas added: “When I saw what they were doing – waving money at us – it left me so angry. They clearly have no idea of the problems faced by people in the real world.” The banker’s antics came in the week it emerged that taxpayer-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland is paying boss Stephen Hester £7.7million for last year, even though it made a loss.
And Parliament heard disgraced former boss of RBS Fred Goodwin has a super-injunction preventing publication of a story about him.
Barclays chief Bob Diamond will get £27million for last year, with his 231 earners getting an average of £2.4million each.
The 1,000-strong march was staged to protest against David Cameron’s plans – never mentioned in the Tory manifesto last year – to tear up the structure of the NHS to bring in more private enterprise.The protest passed Deutsche Bank’s City base en route to world-famous St Bart’s hospital.
The bank’s chief executive Josef Ackermann, paid £8million in 2009, has been a staunch defender of bank salaries.
His firm fought a long battle with the Inland Revenue to try and avoid its staff having to pay tax on bonuses.
The bank said: “These photos appear to show conduct that is unacceptable and unrepresentative of our bank.
“We have suspended the individual involved and will hold him accountable for his actions.”
