Of course I can believe it.
A defence counsel is paid to provide anything and everything that will defend his client, and this is merely an example of that.
The counsel is going to suggest - note that he carefully uses legal lkangauge, not accusing Mr Vine of stereotyping - such an offence because it can then be heard in the court. It doesn't matter if he pursues the claim or not - the statement has been heard by the judge, and the defence counsel hopes that does its job - presenting a negative image of Mr Vine.
It's little difficult to argue that the gesture was not made, since it appears on the photograph in the link, but as I say, the point is merely to provide a negative image of Mr Vine, which is the counsel's job so to do.