A woman has been awarded more than £2,600 compensation against a Bradford clothing store after a tribunal ruled she had been wrongfully sacked.

Shehzadi Bono, 24, of Scholemoor, Bradford, was dismissed from her job as an assistant manager at Bombay Stores cloth merchants in Shearbridge Road in May after her bosses claimed she was sending customers to a rival store.

But yesterday the employment tribunal in Leeds ruled that Miss Bono had been unfairly dismissed from her position after she had been given no prior notice of her alleged misconduct before she was sacked and no right to appeal against the decision.

Shamsuddin Ahmed, of Bradford Racial Equality Council, who was representing Miss Bono, told thehearing: "Bombay Stores pretends to be the ambassador of the Asian community in Bradford - in reality its practice is far below that standard." He said there had been no real reason for Miss Bono's dismissal and claimed that the company had concocted a story about sending a potential customer, Mohammad Ashan, to another shop.

Mr Ashan had claimed Miss Bono had told him he could get a better deal on wedding outfits and decorations at another shop .

He said he was so surprised by Miss Bono's action that he had contacted the stores retail store manager Vaseem Kader of her actions.

Mr Kader had then suspended Miss Bono and she was dismissed a day later.

Making his ruling, tribunal chairman David Hesselberth, said: "We found this a very difficult case. She was afforded no rights or opportunities to appeal against her dismissal. No reasonable employer could have come to the conclusion he Mr Kader did."

Following the hearing Mr Ahmed said he was delighted by the result. Mr Kader said he would be appealing against the decision.

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