Janine Birchley recieved an £11,000 award for unfair dismissal after ending a relationship with her company director Carl Paddick

A woman sacked by her ex-lover has won nearly £11,000 in compensation after an employment tribunal ruled she was unfairly dismissed. 

Janine Birchley, 28, was fired four months after the end of a relationship with company director Carl Paddick. 

Although Mr Paddick denied her claim that they had a nine-month relationship, he admitted sleeping with her.

At the tribunal, employment Judge Little concluded Mr Paddick - one of two directors deciding who should be sacked - had been "in a position where bias could have been involved".

In January, Janine was told by bosses that a redundancy had to be made, and that she and a colleague were candidates. 

Two directors used a 'score system' to decide who should go and awarded points for factors including experience.

Janine lost, even though she had nine years' experience and had trained up her colleague who had been there for only 10 months. 

The hearing was told that Miss Birchley, who was an administration manager at the finance firm, believed Mr Paddick had a grudge when making his decision to sack her.

She worked on despite an unpleasant atmosphere at the 12-strong firm Approved Financial Solutions in Dronfield, near Sheffield, but was made redundant in January.

She took her case to an employment tribunal claiming unfair dismissal.

Now Janine has been awarded £10,963 in compensation following a two-day hearing in Sheffield.

Her former employer's legal costs are estimated to be more than £8,000.  

The tribunal has yet to rule on how much money AFS should also pay Janine - who is now expecting a baby with her fiancee - for loss of maternity pay.  

She said : "This shows you can't just push someone out - you have to follow proper procedure. 

"It's been stressful but I knew I'd been treated badly and I always believed I'd win."

She told the tribunal the situation was unfair because she was never given the chance to see the scores, and was not allowed to appeal before a decision was made.  

Janine added: "I wasn't surprised it was going to be me. That director shouldn't have been involved. It has cost the firm a fortune." 

The tribunal ruled it had concerns over scores given to Janine.  

Liam Kenealy, employment solicitor at Ashton Morton Slack who prepared the case against AFS, said: "Even though the financial industry is going through tough times at the moment companies still need to be fair and follow a proper procedure when carrying out redundancies and do their utmost to prevent the loss of jobs. 

"In Janine's situation this just was not the case and I am pleased the tribunal saw it that way, too."  

An AFS spokesperson said: "The reduction in staff was made with the future of the company in mind, taking into account the turbulent financial market conditions."