A PREGNANT woman was sacked from supermarket giant Netto after giving away £6 worth of carrier bags for free.

Kimberley Fielding, 20, of Sandon Street, Darwen, today spoke of her shock at the decision and said she would have paid for the 100 bags herself to keep her job of four years.

But Thomas Jellum, managing director of Netto Food UK, said giving away carrier bags cost the company £50,000 a year and that staff were warned against it.

Kimberley was caught not charging customers for £6 worth of carrier bags, worth either 9p or 3p, by a CCTV staff monitoring system at the store in School Street, Darwen.

She was suspended and sacked for gross misconduct days later.

This week she was notified by the company that an appeal had been unsuccessful.

Now Kimberley is contemplating suing the firm, which has the motto "Scandinavian for value", for unfair dismissal.

Her baby is due on November 25 -- now she is without maternity pay and unable to take on another job.

Kimberley, who lives at home with her parents, said: "Normally I worked on the shop floor stacking shelves and moving pallets, but I couldn't do that because of the pregnancy.

"So I was working on the tills. I knew that you had to charge for the carrier bags, but the problem was that it got very busy.

"I'd put people's shopping through and hand them bags, but forgot to key them into the till. I didn't know the people who I gave them too, so I didn't do it on purpose.

"They didn't even warn me. When I was told I was being sacked I was waiting for Jeremy Beadle to walk through the door.

"I worked there for four years and did nothing wrong."

Kimberley said she had now signed up for job seekers' allowance and would have to rely on her parents' generosity to survive.

"I cannot get another job as nowhere will take me on at the moment," she said.

"Also if I do apply for a job I will have to tell them I was sacked for gross misconduct, and they will think I was dipping my hand in the till."

Netto confirmed Kimberley had had no previous problems or warnings at the store.

Mr Jellum said: "She was sacked for gross misconduct for giving away 100 carrier bags in less than eight hours.

"She has given away 50 9p bags and 50 3p bags. She has admitted this and she understood that she could not give them away.

"Last year the total loss for the company on carrier bags was £50,000, so we are talking about a lot of money, not peanuts."

He would not discuss how many other employees had been sacked for giving away bags but said this was "not a unique case".

Today, business employment solicitor Wendy Backhouse, of Taylor's Solicitors, Blackburn, said the company seemed to have "over reacted and blown the case out of all proportion".

She said: "If the worker was informed not to do something then it amounts to not obeying a reasonable instruction of a superior.

"But then it comes down to a consideration of whether it is instant dismissal, serious or gross misconduct and to see it as gross misconduct, if she had no previous problems, seems over the top."

Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson said: "Although I can not comment on the individual case I would be more than happy to speak up for Kimberley in front of this company if that would help her."