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An accountant for TJ Hughes claims she was sacked for daring to tell her bosses they may owe a big council tax bill.

Theresa Cairns, who worked for the famous high street store's parent company, Lewis's Home Retail, was shown the door only two weeks after emailing her bosses in what a judge said "may well be an attempt to silence her" - allegations denied by the company.

A preliminary hearing of an Employment Tribunal in Liverpool County Courts heard Mrs Cairns had been going through the books as part of an application by Lewis's to borrow £6m from lenders Close Brothers.

Mrs Cairns, a "very experienced" accountant, identified what she believed was a four year underpayment to Liverpool City Council for tax on the iconic building Audley House, in London Road in the city centre.

The tribunal heard she sent an email to the director of Lewis's, Liverpool businessman Anil Juneja, as well as financial officers Gerard Simpson and Ian Hamilton on January 11 this year suggesting that she would contact the council about setting up a repayment plan.

She was sacked on January 29 after a being summoned to a disciplinary hearing by Mr Hamilton for alleged poor performance.

A Liverpool council spokesman told the ECHO there were no outstanding council tax issues involving Lewis's Home Retail.

However Employment Judge Rachel Barker suggested Mrs Cairns had a "reasonably held belief" that taxes were owed.

She said in a written judgement: "I find that it is no coincidence that the email on 11 January was sent and then a disciplinary procedure was begun on 24 January.

"With no other material grounds raised by the respondent at this stage in the process, the cause of the disciplinary hearing would appear to be the claimant’s email of 11 January.

"Furthermore it is likely that a company in a precarious financial position did not want to find itself on the receiving end of a large council tax bill and that it may well be that the disciplinary hearing was called by Mr Juneja via Mr Hamilton in an attempt to silence Mrs Cairns and to prevent her from raising the issue with Liverpool City Council."

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Mrs Cairns said she had received plaudits from her bosses for her good work before the date of the email, which included helping to remove a winding up petition and a financial penalty imposed by HMRC against the company as well as winning a tax rebate.

Judge Barker said: "The claimant’s case is that, as a consequence of sending this email, her previously cordial and supportive working relationship with Mr Juneja deteriorated to the point where he did not speak to her again.

"She will also say that her relationship with Ian Hamilton, which was also previously cordial and cooperative, became much more strained and much more difficult after 11 January."

The case came after an application by Mrs Cairns for interim relief, which forces a company to continue paying an employees wages if there is a chance they have been sacked for certain reasons, including whistleblowing in the public interest.

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Judge Barker ruled that the disclosure was not necessarily in the public interest and denied an application for interim relief, but stated: "What then followed would appear to me to indicate that, were this a case for 'ordinary' unfair dismissal, that Mrs Cairns would be 'pretty likely to succeed' in her claim before the Employment Tribunal.

"The notes of the [disciplinary] meeting with Mr Hamilton are quite full.

"During the Tribunal hearing Mrs Cairns commented on the allegations that had been made against her and I found her version of events in relation to the allegations to be credible and thorough. I find that it is no coincidence that the email on 11 January was sent and then a disciplinary procedure was begun on 24 January."

In response to questions from the ECHO, Mr Hamilton, chief finance officer at Lewis's suggested Mrs Cairns' claims were "totally unfounded" and that the council tax issue had "no bearing" on her dismissal.

However he said he could not comment further while proceedings were ongoing.

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The case is next due before the Employment Tribunal on June 26.

The company appears to be in an improved financial position according to its latest accounts, which show an improvement from a tough 2016/17.

For the year ending January 31, 2018, Lewis's reported a pre-tax profit of £1.4m on sales of £69.7m - up from a pre-tax loss of £715,000 on sales of £67.3m reported the previous year.