Speech Debelle told to pay £10,000 to ACE over failed race discrimination claim

Mercury Prize-winning musician Speech Debelle has been ordered to pay Arts Council England nearly £10,000 in costs after claims by the former relationship manager of alleged harassment and persecution by ACE colleagues were judged to be groundless by an employment tribunal.

Debelle, real name Corynne Elliot, had claimed that a number of separate incidents of microaggressions, harassment and bullying led to work-related stress and anxiety and her eventual resignation from the role in August 2021.

But at a hearing in October 2023 a judge ruled in ACE’s favour, dismissing the claims as “unreasonable”.

Following an application by ACE to claim back some of the costs of the case from both Elliot and the legal firm that represented her – Graceland Solicitors – as there was “no reasonable basis” for the claims, employment judge Garry Smart ruled in the funding body’s favour.

Elliot has been ordered to pay ACE £9,870 in costs while the claim for costs against Graceland Solicitors was rejected.

‘Damaging’ allegations

Setting out his reasons for the decision, employment judge Smart said it was clear to the panel that Graceland advised Elliot that her claim was weak and she should withdraw it, and also highlighted the potential for costs consequences if she failed to withdraw it.

“Discrimination allegations are damaging to people emotionally, physically and reputationally. After all, any serious allegations are unpleasant and can result, even if the allegations has been disproven beyond any doubt, in the accused becoming stigmatised just as much as the accuser might be,” he said.

“Discrimination allegations suggest the individual accused is in some way immoral, which can be incredibly hurtful, upsetting and can result in real physical and financial harm for an individual.”

“Allegations of discrimination can result in people losing their jobs, livelihoods and personal relationships.

“It is therefore an exceptional case when a claimant brings discrimination claims knowing that they were not discrimination at the very time the events happened and before the claim was raised, which the claimant has done here.”

Settlement negotiations

ACE, whose lawyers had previously said the costs claim was a “matter of integrity”, said it had been seeking £40,000 in costs – £20,000 each from Elliot and her legal firm.

Elliot told Arts Professional that during the hearing the legal firm that initially represented her offered to pay ACE £20,000 but the offer was refused because it would have involved no contribution from her, a claim ACE denies.

“There was some back and forth over telephone with one of the suggestions from ACE being that I pay as little as £1,000 and Graceland pay £19,000 which I declined,” Elliot said.

“Myself and [my] legal team made no offer of payment at all. Because I was not willing to pay anything, which would have been an act of submission on my behalf, they refused the offer.

“This [is] a shameful display of why ACE care only about their public image and do not take their ‘responsibility as custodians of taxpayers’ money seriously, as they have previously claimed.

“This is further evidence of the campaign against me as someone who spoke up.” 

She added that she stands by her claims.

“Racism cases are notoriously difficult to prove, especially against a large institution like ACE with a very expensive and aggressive legal team,” she said.

“Despite the case not going as I had wished, I hope more people will come forward and that ACE actually listens and learns in order to make their working environment less harmful for their employees, as well as ensuring that the public funding they are provided is fairly distributed without bias.” 

An ACE spokesperson said: “The unanimous judgment of the tribunal was that the claims against Arts Council England should be dismissed, and that Arts Council England staff acted professionally and appropriately.”

“We take our responsibility as custodians of taxpayers’ money seriously and therefore, based on the exceptional comments of the judge on the merits of Arts Council England’s case as the claimant, we sought to recover a proportion of our legal costs, both from the litigant, and from the firm of solicitors who initially represented her.

“The above account [of discussions in relation to settling the costs claim] is inaccurate, and does not reflect conversations that were had at the time.”