Job fear 'driving bankers to cocaine'

Cocaine use in the City has shot up by a quarter in a year because of the recession, according to a former investment banker who works with addicts.

Don Serratt, chief executive of Duke Street clinic Life Works, said hundreds of financial workers were turning to the drug to cope with redundancy fears and anxiety.

He accused City firms of failing to tackle cocaine use as it escalated. Comparing June to September this year with the same period last year, he said: "We have seen a 25 per cent rise in bankers from the City entering treatment."

Mr Serratt said users did not generally admit to a problem until their performance at work was affected , so bankers did not seek help immediately after the crisis began in September last year.

American-born Mr Serratt, who worked for Bear Sterns and Creditanstalt for 10 years, added that cocaine-using City workers can become trapped in anxiety through the Class-A drug.

"A lot of investment bankers are adrenaline junkies doing 100-hour weeks and a lot of those people are addicted to coke and speed," he said. "For an addict with anxiety, the more anxious they feel the more coke they do, the more coke they do, the more anxious they feel - it's an upward spiral."

Mr Serratt, 46, of Brook Green, set up Life Works six years ago. He was addicted to alcohol and drugs but has been clean since he was 19.

He condemned firms for not taking drug abuse seriously. "A friend worked for a boutique investment bank and when he was at the peak of his problem, and his career, his bosses took him to the pub to talk about his problem," he said. "That was seven years ago, but things haven't changed much."

This week Neil Brenner, medical director of the Priory clinic, warned the Commons home affairs committee that bankers were more likely to have cocaine problems than other professionals. Home Office figures show Britain is Europe's biggest consumer of the drug.

Geraint Anderson, author of Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile, said: "It's all about cocaine in the City. It is the drug for people who love the thrill of the trading floor - they can get the same buzz away from the office."

Harry Shapiro of Drugscope said: "It's important to stress the dangers. Users can have heart problems and become dependent on the drug."