Elvis fan David Jewers was all shook up when he was sacked after singing along to the King's hits whilst working on the Nissan production line.

An employment tribunal heard yesterday how the part-time club singer felt 'intimidated, patronised, and threatened'' by a supervisor who responded to his hip-swinging tribute with obscenities.

The 37-year-old was marking the 25th anniversary of the King's death last August by singing along to the radio at the Washington car plant when he was told by manager Andy Whitmore that he was distracting other workers.

The father-of-one had been entertaining other workers by dancing, playing air guitar and belting out Elvis songs being piped into the factory.

The hearing was told that Mr Whitmore felt he was disrupting the strict regime of the production line.

Fifteen minutes later, Mr Jewers, from Gateshead, walked over to his boss and said he would ''punch his head in'' if he ever spoke to him like that again, Newcastle Employment Tribunal was told.

Mr Jewers, employed in his £26,000-a-year job for 11 years, said: ''It is normal to have background music playing in the workplace and I was singing along with an Elvis Presley record. I was happy in my work and did not believe that I was causing offence or disturbing fellow workers.

''I regularly sing along with music from the radio on my section and had never been spoken to by any supervisor in this regard.

"He (Mr Whitmore) deserved to be spoken to badly in view of what he had said to me but in speaking to him the way I did I was using language only as forceful as the language he had used."

He blamed the outburst on the fact that he had been asked to return to the stressful work soon after he had been off work with stress for four months.

Mr Jewers, of Low Fell, Gateshead, is seeking damages for unfair dismissal. He was sacked following an internal investigation by line manager William Armstrong, and Nissan say his outburst amounted to gross misconduct.

But his solicitor Brian Slater said yesterday that the investigation amounted to a ''kangaroo court'' with Mr Armstrong acting as ''judge, jury and kitchen sink''. The tribunal continues.