Benjamin Mendy WINS £11m unpaid wages battle with Man City to obtain the ‘majority’ of his wage after rape acquittal

Benjamin Mendy has won his legal battle against Manchester City for the majority of his £11m in unpaid wages while he faced rape charges.

Mendy was cleared of raping a woman at his £4m mansion and trying to rape another woman following a retrial last year. 

City halted Mendy’s £500,000-a-month salary in 2021 when Mendy was arrested for the second time.

Mendy, who joined City for £49m from Monaco in 2017, responded by taking the Premier League champions to an employment tribunal, and he has won the fight for most of his unpaid salary after making a claim for ‘unauthorised deductions’ from his wages.

Mendy’s claim was for around £11m before tax. The tribunal’s verdict means he will be entitled to the majority of this figure but not all of it, having spent approximately five months in custody during the 22-month period covered by the claim. The exact amount is set to be agreed by the parties involved, or will be decided in a future hearing if an agreement cannot be reached. 

The tribunal heard that City continued to pay Mendy after his first arrest in November 2020, but changed their stance when he was re-arrested the following year.

After being charged, Mendy was told by City chiefs that they would not be paying his salary as he was ‘not presently ready and able to perform the obligations of his contract’.

Mendy claims then-chief operating officer Omar Berrada assured him he would receive his wages once acquitted, but the tribunal heard Mendy received no response from Berrada or chief executive Khaldoon Al Mubarak when he reached out to the pair for clarification.

Mendy revealed to the court that his then-City team-mates Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez helped him financially while his wages were withheld, and he was forced to sell his Cheshire mansion to pay his legal fees, bills and for child support. 

City argued in court that Mendy only had himself to blame for behaving irresponsibly, following reports the left back threw parties at the mansion during lockdown and breached his bail conditions.

Sean Jones KC, who represented City, said: ‘The essence of the submission by Mr Mendy is that his contract creates a moral hazard.

‘He says “I can behave as irresponsibly as I like, I can ignore all the rules, both legal, of the club and common sense to the point where my behaviour results in prison”.

‘He is trying to make a moral hazard into a virtue. He says “It should in no way affect my entitlement to pay. There should be no consequences to my behaviour”.’

Mendy now plays for Lorient in Ligue 2 after returning to France last year following the expiry of his City contract. He had not played for City since August 2021 after the rape allegations were made against him.

After being cleared by a jury following three hours of deliberations at his retrial last year, Mendy wept in the dock and exclaimed ‘Alhamdulillah’ – an Arabic phrase meaning: ‘Praise be to God’.

Jenny Wiltshire, Head of Serious & General Crime at Hickman & Rose said: ‘Benjamin Mendy would like to thank the members of the jury for focusing on the evidence in this trial, rather than on the rumour and innuendo that have followed this case from the outset.

‘This is the second time that Mr Mendy has been tried and found not guilty by a jury. He is delighted that both juries reached the correct verdicts.

‘It has been almost 3 years since the police started investigating this matter. Mr Mendy has tried to remain strong but the process has, inevitably had a serious impact on him.

‘He thanks everyone who has supported him throughout this ordeal and now asks for privacy so he can begin rebuilding his life.’