‘I won £65,000 at an employment tribunal – but I haven’t seen a penny’

Nadine told the BBC that taking the company she worked for, Peckham Levels Ltd, to a tribunal was “probably the worst experience of my life”.

Both sides told the BBC they made offers to settle, but the case went to a full hearing and Nadine was awarded £28,750 for detrimental treatment, £35,250 for unfair dismissal plus a compensatory award of £915.

Weeks after the judgement, Peckham Levels Ltd went into administration, leaving Nadine with no way to recover her award.

“I’ve lost my sense of joy,” she says. “When you get told by a judge that you have suffered detriment, and you still can’t receive that money – it kind of makes it worse,” she says.

The former director of Peckham Levels, Preston Benson, is currently the director of 12 businesses.

In a statement, he said the distress the case had caused Nadine was “deeply regrettable”.

Mr Benson pointed out that he had “no legal ability” to pay the award once the company was in administration.