ONE of the stars of Meridian TV's The Village‚ who was sacked from her £22,000 a year job, has won a court case for unfair dismissal.

Lorraine Yardley, who with her partner Colin Meatyard frequently appeared on the long-running real-life soap series set in Bentley, said she was heartbroken when she lost her job in March for gross misconduct and racism.

"I was so happy there," it was my life and my wheels fell off when I was sacked," she says.

Mrs Yardley had worked for two years as site manager for Permaclean Environmental Services Ltd. at The Friary Shopping Centre in Guildford, with responsibility for overseeing the cleaning of the centre and liaising with the operations manager there

But complaints made to her about the standard of cleaning and tidying in the centre, her "disloyal and flippant manner‚ and racist attitude" eventually led to disciplinary action.

Mrs Yardley claimed that she did the best she could, working a 60-hour week and constantly short-staffed, but she was sacked.

However, the industrial tribunal found that her dismissal was unfair and said that the allegations against her had not been properly investigated by the company which employs 1,000 people.

There was also no evidence of racism. Failure to attend an equal opportunities course run by the company was caused by staff shortages - and although there was concern about the cleaning of the centre, other reasons were used as a basis for the dismissal.

Mrs. Yardley said: "I'm overwhelmed and relieved at the decision. Justice has been done. It was an unanimous decision as well. This has cost me £3,500 so it's not for the faint-hearted but I feel it's a bit of a victory."

Compensation has yet to be set.