A furious diner today demanded compensation from a smart restaurant -- for ruining her luxury knickers.

Lesley Smith claims her £27 cream French-designer undies were damaged when she sat on a wet chair at Clark's restaurant in Bradford.

Mrs Smith, 49, said she was humiliated by the experience during a night out with her husband and his work colleagues.

She claimed she had to walk through the packed dining room of the Heaton restaurant with a wet backside to find somewhere to dry off. Staff swapped the chair but Mrs Smith said her evening was ruined.

And now, she claims, bosses at the swish eatery do not want to know about her compensation claim.

Although she has successfully claimed back the £4.20 cost of dry cleaning her trousers, she claimed today that the restaurant was so far unwilling to pay for new lingerie. She said she threw away the briefs in disgust because she didn't know what the puddle on her chair was.

"I don't want anything next to my skin that has been soaked in something that I didn't even know what it was," she said.

"The chair was soaking wet and it soaked right through my clothing. It could have been the result of an incontinent little old lady or an over-excited child, or it could have been beer, but I just don't know."

Mrs Smith and her husband Charles were in a group of 14 of his former colleagues from the Abbey National in Bradford, enjoying their annual works dinner. Their bill came to more than £400.

Mrs Smith, a mother-of-two and school administrator from Bramhope, claimed: "I sat down and started to feel a little bit warm, and realised I was sitting on a soaking wet chair.

"I stood up and walked through the restaurant to the toilet and dried myself off and washed my hands. They changed the chair, but there was no apology. I didn't make a fuss at the time because I didn't want to spoil everyone's evening. The head waiter advised us to write in afterwards, so we did."

Bosses at the restaurant wrote back to Mrs Smith, asking her to return the knickers so they could inspect them to see how serious the damage was.

Proprietor Geraldine Clark wrote: "Further to previous correspondence please forward the underwear in question for inspection and we will consider your claim further."

Today, she added: "Obviously, we have accidents, people spill things over customers and we always say, send us the dry cleaning bill and we will refund the cost.

"This lady is actually claiming for new undergarments - £27 seems like a lot for a pair of underwear. For us to pay out, we'd need to see the item - which I think is fair enough - but she won't send me it."

Mrs Smith has sent the sales receipt for the underwear but has already thrown the spoiled lingerie away.

"This isn't the sort of thing you'd make up. I just felt grubby and I don't want to wear them ever again. It spoiled the whole evening for me."

Graham Hebblethwaite, of the West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service, said: "I can understand this lady being miffed.

"The restaurant has a duty of care under the Supplies of Goods and Services Act. Services like providing a meal must be done with reasonable care and skill.

"Part of that is enabling the customer to sit down in comfort and enjoy what's being provided. If that isn't the case, there are grounds for making a claim. But I'm not sure it would be worth going to law over it. Perhaps they ought to offer a complementary meal, and they can all put it behind them."