A HAMPSHIRE chef is in line for tens of thousands of pounds in damages after she was sacked from her job working for rock star Sting and his wife after getting pregnant.

Jane Martin, 41, from Winchester, worked for the multi-millionaire couple for eight years at their lavish mansion near Salisbury, cooking for celebrity guests including Madonna, Sir Elton John and Bob Geldof.

But she told an employment tribunal in Southampton how the couple broke employment laws by sacking her after she became pregnant.

Throughout the hearing the employment tribunal had been told that staff at the couple's 800-acre pile lived in a climate of fear because Sting's wife Trudie subjected them to abuse to make her "feel royal".

In a unanimous verdict due to be revealed today, the tribunal members are reported to have found that Miss Martin was unfairly dismissed on the grounds of her pregnancy and had been the victim of unlawful sexual discrimination.

The employment tribunal had been told how during her time working for the famous couple the £28,000-a-year-chef would be told to have truffles couriered over from France.

She would sometimes also travel from the family's Lake House residence to their London home just to prepare food for their children.

Miss Martin, who was made redundant in April last year, said relations began to sour when she became pregnant in 2005. She told the tribunal that she had been made to work 14-hour days while heavily pregnant and travelled 100 miles just to make Miss Styler soup. The former cook also told how her bosses had created a sham redundancy process.

Lake House Estate, the company owned by Sting and his wife through which Miss Martin was employed was guilty of shameful conduct', the tribunal said.

The ruling, in which Sting and his wife are referred to as Sumner (his real name), is due to be made public today.

It was reported that it stated that Miss Martin's departure "was so badly mishandled and conducted in such an incompetent manner that the true purpose shines through the subterfuge and calumnious actions seeking to suppress the true facts".

It is said to add: "Although Mrs Sumner tried to distance herself from the various unlawful acts and have them carried out by minions on her behalf, where the evidence is looked at holistically, her involvement is clear.

"She is without doubt the driving force manipulating others to perform her dirty work'."

After the tribunal ruling was announced Miss Styler is reported to have said she was "devastated" and would appeal.

"I wholly reject the tribunal's findings on this issue. Sting and I have been lucky over many years to have worked with loyal and long serving colleagues and staff. Their collective loyalty and long service suggests that the picture of our household which Jane painted, and which the tribunal appears to have accepted, is a travesty." The size of Miss Martin's compensation payout will be decided at a hearing on June 8.