Taking on your employer in an industrial tribunal might seem a risky thing to do, but Kerry Yates has done just that - and won her case plus compensation. She talks to Women's Editor Sarah Foster about being wrongfully dismissed and how she fought to clear her name.

IT was a terrifying day, and one which Kerry won't forget. With sweating palms and feeling nauseous with fear, she tried to still her racing heart before she faced what was to come. She took a final, calming breath, then gritting her teeth, walked in and stood before the panel. This was her chance to clear her name, and Kerry couldn't afford to fail.

What she took on would make most blanch to even think of. Not only did Kerry, just 29, take her employers to a tribunal, she even fought her case herself. The mum-of-two, who comes from Thornaby, had never trained to be a lawyer, had never even been in court, and yet miraculously, she won, receiving £15,000. Yet, while the victory was sweet, it followed many months of pain, in which she lost her much-loved job for so-called fraudulent behaviour. It all began with her involvement in an annual sales initiative.

"I worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland selling Churchill car insurance and home insurance at a call centre in Stockton," explains Kerry, who recently moved to Inverness. "We had a competition in June every year called the Big Push and there was big money involved. Every week there were three cash prizes then, at the end of a six-week period, there was £20,000 for the highest team. There was about 300 sales staff in my office in Teesside but this competition was run over three sites. The highest team split the money between them."

A high achiever day to day (she says she doubled her basic wage with what she garnered in commission), when Kerry won a weekly prize she just assumed that she'd done well. As a condition of her win, a cash reward of £400, she had to undergo an audit. It marked the start of Kerry's nightmare.

"What normally happened was you had an audit done by a different site so I had mine done by Bromley, and everything was fine," she says. "A couple of days after that Teesside did an audit. I was taken into the office and the team leader gave me an envelope and said another team leader and the quality assessor wanted to have a chat with me about my calls. He made out as if it was nothing."

Yet, as the process ran its course, it grew progressively more serious. What didn't help was Kerry's sense that she'd already been condemned. "I went to a meeting and I just thought I was being interrogated," she says. "They called it a fact finding, but every time I said something they came back with something else."

The central issue was that the management at Teesside had found some flaws in Kerry's calls. She claims that these were fairly minor and the reaction far too strong. "I got suspended because of the way I handled my calls and they said they were passing it through to the fraud department," she says. "There was concern that I'd manipulated data for my own personal gain. They said that I'd only started asking if people wanted to put their spouse on the policy while the Big Push was on but I'd always asked that. At first it was just a bit bizarre because I'd looked at the audit and there were mistakes but nothing major, just things that happened across the sales floor every day. It's impossible to get everything right all the time."

And things were to get worse. While Kerry put her life on hold, the firm just seemed to drag its heels. It took four months - from September 2005 to January 2006 - for her to learn that she'd been sacked. "It was a horrible time," she admits. "I got my letter on January 6 and it said I'd been sacked for fraud and dishonesty. It was awful. It was just the embarrassment - I hadn't even told my family that I'd been suspended."

But Kerry wouldn't just lie down. She felt her treatment had been callous, so first appealed to her ex-bosses. When this proved fruitless, she took her case to a tribunal. "I got in touch with Askews (the North-East based solicitors), who gave me a free consultation and just went through everything with Mike (Robinson, employment partner with the firm), and he said 'you've definitely got a case'," says Kerry. "I represented myself. Mike was quite fair - he just said he didn't think I could lose so he said 'you might as well keep all the money'. He fully prepared me."

The panel found in Kerry's favour. It said her sacking had been wrongful because of how it had been handled and that her bosses had behaved in an unreasonable manner. At last she felt a sense of justice. "I was absolutely over the moon - I couldn't believe it," says Kerry, who's now secured another job. "The tribunal was stressful and it's a horrible thing to go through but I would encourage anyone in my position to do the same thing."

While not all cases are successful, according to Mike it always pays to seek advice. To have a realistic chance, he says you have to act immediately. "Speed is of the essence with all unfair dismissal claims. An employment tribunal must have received a claim within three months of the resignation or dismissal, or it will be out of time. For a constructive dismissal, it is necessary to raise a statutory grievance with the employer before the claim can proceed in the tribunal.

"The key to many successful tribunal cases is preparation: preparation of detailed statements, and gathering together relevant documents. My advice is to act quickly, get the best advice you can, and be prepared to do some preparation."

In response to Kerry's win, RBS Insurance said: "We have reviewed the findings of the tribunal and will, of course, fully abide by its decision."