This happened to one of my parents a lot, to the point where they won a tribunal for race discrimination when they faced bullying in the NHS when promoted to management. The colleague in question interviewed for the same role and my parent got it, and his friend also got a promotion. They were mocked, had junior staff pretend not to hear them/understand their (first language of) English, had the medication keys or clipboards thrown at them instead of handed over, nuisance phone calls to home (that were linked to the hospital), fictitious complaints, anonymous letters sent home, notes sent/records kept on our family who didn't work at the hospital (i.e what school I went to, what in laws did for a living, what our neighbours said about us etc...VERY odd), lots of documented racism and yet HR and Senior Managers did nothing at all to intervene (hence the tribunal). The friend was bullied too, with Irish racial bullying being part of it and they were supported, but they were white, again hence my parent winning the tribunal (as they are not white).
Parent then set up own business as NHS tried to make them work with the same colleague again but this time the bullying colleague had been promoted over them! Won a case for constructive dismissal but pension was frozen until State Pension age (instead of 55 as planned).
Another relative was bullied by their employees in their own business! It was awful, real nasty middle aged mean girls stuff, mocking behind back, stealing but covering for each other, clever psychological stuff that couldn't be proven because they'd all lie for each other. They basically took control of the business. Relative announced the business had to close due to unforeseen circumstances (luckily none of them had been there long enough for redundancy). Kept building, renamed business, took on different clientele and named spouse as director and got all new staff to open up again two months later.
It can definitely happen and supportive senior colleagues/HR and robust policies for dealing with bullying are needed. Seek ACAS advice if you are getting nowhere. Organisations have a duty of care and relevant legislation is in place which means they have to at least be seen as supporting victims of bullying over perpetrators.