A nursing home worker sacked after a resident left her cash in his will has won her case for unfair dismissal.

Nurse Anne Froggatt was awarded £7,000 by an employment tribunal in Leeds yesterday.

The tribunal heard she was dismissed from her job at Fairmount Nursing Home in Shipley in January this year on the grounds of gross misconduct.

Bosses said she had broken the rules of the home on Nab Wood Drive by accepting the £1,500 bequest.

But the tribunal ruled her employer had "moved the goalposts" and acted inconsistently.

Mrs Froggatt, of Nab Wood Crescent, Shipley, said she was gob-smacked to find out she had been left the money by resident Peter Ancs.

But she told the hearing that, in discussions with Konrad Czajka, the owner of the home, and senior manager Yvonne Robinson, she felt they were accusing her of seeking financial gain. She said that by not accepting the money, she would be admitting they were right.

But the nursing home managers claimed it had not been their intention to accuse Mrs Froggatt of seeking financial gain and had warned her that if she accepted the money, she would face disciplinary action.

The tribunal was told that staff were allowed to accept token gifts, like a box of chocolates or potted plants. But Mrs Froggatt, a trained nurse who had worked at Fairmount since 1994, said the handbook did not, at the time, refer to bequests. But the company said the handbook had since been amended.

Mrs Froggatt said: "A gift is something a living person gives to you, a bequest is something you know nothing about. He was a man I had cared for, who had thought he wanted to leave me something, and here I was not been very caring saying I didn't want to know."

Mr Czajka said the policy was there to protect vulnerable adults and the reputation of the home and he added: "If I allowed one member of my staff in part of the group to accept gifts or bequests, it put my own company built up over 20 years into disrepute."

He said he arranged to send the money back to the dead man's family in Latvia.

The tribunal heard another employee, Peter Somakov, who was appointed as executor of the same will, was also a beneficiary, and received £200. He had since been sacked on another matter.

Tribunal chairman Kevin Fletcher said this showed a serious question of inconsistency and ruled Mrs Froggatt was unfairly dismissed.

Mrs Froggatt, who has been a nurse for more than 40 years, said she would find it too difficult to go back to her job. Speaking after the hearing, she said she was pleased her name had been cleared.