A PRISON officer who became severely depressed because she was refused new working hours was awarded record damages of £400,000 yesterday.

The sum was more than twice the previous amount for unfair dismissal because of a disability.

Jacqui Beart, 39, a former senior officer who worked at Swaleside prison, Kent, for 18 years, claimed that she was discriminated against because of her depression, which the tribunal found had been a genuine disability. She had requested a change of hours so that she could collect her teenage children from school after her domestic circumstances altered.

But her manager refused as she thought that it would require demoting Ms Beart.

The day after a meeting with her manager, Ms Beart told the tribunal that she had become depressed, forcing her to take sick leave in September 1997. She never returned to work. After a disciplinary hearing in her absence, she was dismissed in February 1999.

The tribunal panel ruled that the Prison Service, which twice appealed against the original decision to award compensation in March 2001, failed “to make a reasonable adjustment ... to relocate her”.

David de Saxe, the tribunal chairman, said: “From the beginning of her illness, the Prison Service discriminated against her by not paying sufficient pastoral visits.

“A large institutional employer cannot be heard to say that it does not know of its duties under a major Act of Parliament.”

Yesterday Ms Beart, from Sheerness, said: “The size of the award is a big help to me, but nothing could really compensate me for the terrible time I’ve had over the past six years. Depression is an awful illness. It is good that it is recognised as a disability. At least that is a start in helping people who suffer from it.”

Disabled and mental health charities defended the amount of compensation, claiming that it would be a warning to other employers.

Jim Thompson, chief executive of the Depression Alliance charity, said: “Depression is an illness that needs to be treated seriously. It is one thing to be ‘depressed’ about going in to work on Monday morning, but another to be clinically depressed, which is very difficult to feign.”

A Prison Service spokesman said: “We note the findings of the court and will be looking carefully at how this impacts on our current policy on disability discrimination.”

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