The names of around 30 serial claimants has been collated by Essex lawyer Gordon Turner following an extensive trawl of employment tribunal hearings and details of cases provided by fellow solicitors.

One man alone is believed to have been involved in 150 cases of alleged discrimination and boasted that he had received many settlements in the region of £500 to £2,000 without taking the claim through the tribunal system.

Lawyers say he had not applied for any of the jobs cited in claims and in some cases had been paid the compensation by employers after threatening to "go public".

Investigations showed he had made discrimination claims covering jobs ranging from architecture to mobile telecommunications and even a dance examiner. Some of the claims alleged that the use of the words "recent graduate" or "school leaver" in adverts was discriminatory on age grounds.

Mr Turner said: "I have seen 50 decisions against him based on jobs he hadn't applied for. I am aware of at least 30 people involved in multiple claims and I'm now finding myself as a conduit for a phenomenon that nobody has got a hand on."

He believes serial litigants could easily be earning £50,000-£60,000 a year tax free by abusing the tribunal system, making fake discrimination claims "based on unfortunate advertisements on websites" and bullying employers to offer payment for settling the case rather than attract adverse publicity.

He is pressing for changes in the tribunal set-up to provide safeguards for employers against serial litigants and remove barriers which prevent details of claims being exchanged or circulated.

Mr Turner has asked Jack Straw, Justice Secretary and the Tribunal Service to consider reforms that would deal with multiple claims, but was told that the current set-up where cases are handled on an individual basis was adequate. The Tribunal Service is also reluctant to approve suggestions that claims should be published on line.

A system where employers and solicitors can exchange information has been set up by Mr Turner but he has been told by the Information Commissioner that he cannot keep a database of the estimated 30 serial litigants because of the risk of breaching human rights.

Instead he is keeping records of search results, limited to the names of individuals making claims to avoid running into legal trouble and trying to encourage more tribunals to strike out fake claims.

He said: "I don't have information to show there is a conspiracy among the serial applicants but there is a scam. It seems that everyone takes these people at face value and gives them the benefit of the doubt."

Mr Turner believes the typical serial litigant spends an hour or so each day online trawling through adverts or calling up frequently used phrases to identify potential cases where they could claim discrimination. 

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