HMRC manager invented notes claiming Armenian trainee wanted to 'kill Russians for killing her family', tribunal finds

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026.

An Armenian HMRC trainee known only as Ms X has won £16,506.95 in compensation after her line manager fabricated meeting notes falsely claiming she had threatened to use her position to kill Russians. The tribunal found that Ms X never made any such comments — manager Damian Robson, who described himself as 'an empathetic and relaxed manager', had invented the allegation entirely in private notes. An inexperienced appeal officer then worsened the slander by misreading the fabricated claim as evidence Ms X was 'medically paranoid'.

Ms X, granted UK asylum in 2004, changed her surname while at HMRC because her real one identified her as 'an Armenian from Abkhazia'.

Robson's emails to Ms X were found by the tribunal to be 'patronising', 'hostile' and 'inappropriate' — the opposite of his own self-assessment.

HMRC was ordered to pay the full £16,506.95 after its own internal appeal upheld the original disciplinary decision rather than correcting it.