A SALESWOMAN taken on for her "model looks" was fired a month after revealing she was pregnant with twins.

Former Miss Great Britain finalist Emma Nicholson, 24, was told she had the perfect credentials for sales: "blonde hair and long legs".

She is now in line for a pay-out from her former company after an employment tribunal ruled she was sexually discriminated against and unfairly dismissed.

As a teenager, she made tabloid headlines with kiss- and-tell stories on footballers Lee Bowyer - now with Newcastle United - and Lee Sharpe

And in 2003, she was voted ninth in a list of the most beautiful UK women by readers of lads' magazine Maxim.

She is now a married mother-of-three and was pursuing a career with a telecommunications firm, Network Global Limited.

But her new bosses were more interested in her glamorous appearance than her sales skills, the tribunal found.

During a company team-building exercise, she was persuaded to pose topless for a "humiliating" photograph, which was later pinned to a noticeboard.

In its findings, the tribunal said: "We believe Mrs Nicholson earned the job by her appearance and model looks."

Mrs Nicholson, of Stanley, County Durham, told her manager she was pregnant last January and was sacked a month later.

Network Global claimed she was sacked for forging clients' signatures, an allegation she denied and which was rejected.

After learning she had won her case, Mrs Nicholson - married to engineering company manager Colin - said: "I knew I was a good saleswoman. I was shocked to be told to pose topless for what was supposed to a team-building exercise."

She told the Newcastle hearing that on another occasion, her boss, Terry Galloway, told staff why they were good at sales.

She said: "When he came to me, he said to everyone that I was perfect because I had blonde hair and long legs.

"It was worse when they found out I was pregnant - they took my company car off me when I was signed off on the sick and dumped my things in my front garden."

Nigel Gravett, managing director of the telecommunications company, said Mrs Nicholson had previously been warned over forgery allegations but had kept her job because he thought she had learnt her lesson.

Yesterday, the Lincoln-based company declined to comment on the tribunal's finding. The amount of compensation will be discussed at a remedies hearing in Newcastle in April.