'Sheikh's wife left staff needing pills'

The wife of former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani regularly abused her staff to the point that some had to take antidepressants and seek counselling, it has been claimed.

Tammam Yamani, whose husband's fortune was once estimated at £500million, frequently flew into "uncontrollable rages" and verbally attacked servants who worked at the couple's Windlesham Hall home in Surrey, former housekeeper Elizabeth Hanson has alleged.

Mrs Hanson, who cleaned and shopped for the family for 11 years, said she was regularly given £10,000 in notes to travel to London to run errands.

But, she told an industrial tribunal, the stress of working for the household left her needing anti-depressants and counselling.

On the day she was sacked, Mrs Yamani forced 35-year-old Mrs Hanson to sit on her bedroom floor to book a doctor's appointmentfor the sheikh, while she screamed abuse at a young Filipina maid who had failed to find an address book. When Mrs Hanson could not arrange an immediate consultation, Mrs Yamani was alleged to have launched into a vicious verbal attack.

Mrs Hanson told the tribunal: "The bathroom door suddenly opened to its hinges and Madame Yamani came towards me with her finger right up to my face accusing me of being rude to her, saying 'Don't you ever speak to me like that again. Don't tell me to listen to you. Who do you think you are?'

"I stepped back two paces, absolutely shocked. The pressure and stress of dealing with Madame Yamani on a daily basis over many years, because of her attitude and unpredictability, was enormous to say the least, which has changed me from a confident young woman to a tearful, insecure person."

Mrs Hanson's mother Betty Mosely, an assistant housekeeper, claimed she was sacked simply because of her daughter's dismissal. Mrs Mosely, a member of staff for 16 years, said staff were often berated by Mrs Yamani in front of her rich friends.

The third of the three women claiming unfair dismissal, 60-year-old Marlene Doe, alleges she was sacked in May last year from her washing and ironing job for "no reason".