A BURGER KING shift manager is planning to sue her former bosses after being sacked and wrongly accused of burglary -- over £30 and a missing portion of fries.

And today the Crown Prosecution Service pledged to review the way the case of Sarah Francis was handled after a judge said it should never have been brought to court.

Sarah Francis, 21, of Leech Street, Blackburn, was accused of stealing the cash and food from the Burger King at Grimshaw Park, Blackburn, last August.

The day after police charged her, she was sacked from the £8,300 a year post by Burger King for gross misconduct. She had been an employee for four years and a shift manager for almost ten months.

Judge David Pirie criticised the Crown Prosecution Service after the case collapsed on the first day of trial at Burnley Crown Court due to a lack of evidence.

Now Sarah plans to meet her legal representatives, GHT Solicitors, based in Burnley, to discuss taking Burger King franchisee Oakmere Ltd to an Industrial Tribunal to sue for unfair dismissal.

She is now employed by Riley's Snooker Centre in Blackburn, but spent four months unemployed because she claimed it was hard to get work because she had to put the gross misconduct dismissal on her CV.

She said she had to rely on financial support from her family to get by in this period, although she was awarded defence costs which covered her legal fees.

Sarah said: "I have never done anything wrong like that in my life. I'm really angry, but relieved that I have cleared my name.

"It was embarrassing because I was the manager. I feel I am putting the record straight now. I can't believe it happened to me.

"I can't believe I had to go through all that and appear in court four times until they decided to drop the charges. I feel I was a scapegoat.

"The unfair dismissal could take a while but it will be worth it in the end if I get the right result."

The night it was alleged the money was taken, Sarah said she had gone to the restaurant to pick up a motorcycle helmet for a friend. Company bosses suspected she was responsible for the theft of the cash and the French fries because of her visit to the restaurant after her shift had ended. They reported her to the police.

She said she was arrested in the restaurant the following afternoon and detained at Blackburn police station for five hours before being released on bail. There were three preliminary hearings before the case reached Burnley Crown Court.

Judge David Pirie said the CPS should have decided to drop the prosecution weeks before it reached court.

A spokesman for Burger King said: "The Burger King restaurant at Grimshaw Park, Blackburn is a franchise business owned by Oakmere Ltd.

"Franchisees are responsible for their own recruitment and human resources management.

"Burger King does, however, offer support and advice to its franchisees on recruitment as well as training courses relating to management skills on a continuous basis.

"As Burger King is not the employer in this case it would be inappropriate for Burger King to comment further on specific details of this case."

A spokesman for Oakmere Ltd, which is based in Cheshire, declined to comment.

Ian Rushton, Crown Prosecutor, said: "We continually review cases.

"There were developments relatively recently in this case and unfortunately, we were not able to stop the trial earlier because we hadn't obtained that information at that stage.

"We will take on board Judge Pirie's comments and conduct a review into what happened."