Bank payout for sacked soldier

There are 250,000 British reservists ready for action

A leading international bank is paying £70,000 compensation to a worker who lost his job after serving with British forces in Kosovo.

Sebastian Nokes, 35, from London, had been hoping to return to his £75,000 a year job as vice-president in the strategy sector of Credit Suisse First Boston.

But while still on active service in Kosovo, the bank called him to a meeting to tell him he was being made redundant.

Mr Nokes, who served as a member of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force between April and August 1999, believed he was being penalised for serving his country.

The banker, whose reservist role was as a flight lieutenant responsible for intelligence gathering, then decided to take his employers to a tribunal. But the two sides eventually agreed to settle the dispute between themselves.

The MoD has been following the case closely, because it relies on the help of 250,000 reservists in times of national need.

The ministry is said to be anxious that employers do not make life difficult for reservists called for military action.