A charity run by Conservative councillors sacked a woman because she blew the whistle on a colleague’s alleged fraud.

The Deans Youth Project was found to have wrongfully dismissed Carolyn Simmons in March, after she claimed to her boss that a worker, Gary Rolf, had falsified invoices worth more than £7,000.

An employment tribunal found that Councillor Dee Simson and centre manager Linda Newman sacked her because they were unhappy that the other worker had had to leave.

The charity, based at Woodingdean Youth Centre in Warren Road, Woodingdean, runs projects with “disengaged pupils” and others aged 13 to 19.

Mrs Simmons became office manager in December 1999, with duties including bookkeeping.

The tribunal heard that in July 2011, she told Mrs Newman, chairwoman of the charity’s management committee, that Gary Rolf had been falsifying £250 invoices for fishing trips to Passie’s Pond, at Church Farm, Coombes, Lancing.

Mrs Newman shredded the invoices but copies showed they totalled £7,650.

No action was taken until October that year. A panel made up of councillors Mary Mears, David Smith and Geoff Wells was set up to investigate the falsification of invoices. They raised concerns about the shredding.

Mr Rolf, who said he had falsified the invoices for ease of accounting, was sacked, then reinstated but then resigned and left in March this year.

In March, Mrs Simmons faced a disciplinary process accused of over-paying herself. She was sacked but took the charity to a tribunal claiming wrongful dismissal.

The tribunal, which sat at Havant in August this year, heard that Coun Wells was of the view that there was undue haste to progress allegations against the claimant and in his view this contrasted quite markedly with the treatment afforded to Mr Rolf.

Coun Mears told the tribunal she thought the allegations against Mrs Simmons were brought “to deflect away from the original investigation regarding the fraudulent invoices”.

In its judgement, issued on October 25, the tribunal panel found that Mrs Simmons did not deliberately overpay herself or breach her contract. It found that she had been wrongfully dismissed because she had made a “protected disclosure” by blowing the whistle on the invoices.

It concluded: “Although Ms Newman and Ms Simson were ultimately concerned with the success of the youth project, in relation to the claimant’s dismissal we nonetheless find that they were motivated by the claimant’s protected disclosures.

“In particular, they were not happy that as a result of the claimant’s endeavours Gary Rolf, in effect, had been forced to resign from his position because of the allegations made against him.”

Tony Greenstein, who represented Mrs Simmons at the tribunal, has called for her to be reinstated and has complained to the Charity Commission about the case.

Sussex Police confirmed a 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of fraud at the centre on December 23 last year. They later released him with no further action against him.

Neither Coun Simson nor Mrs Newman were available to comment yesterday.

Conservative councillors Dee Simson, Mary Mears, David Smith and Geoff Wells were part of the charity’s management committee until it was disbanded in December 2011.