A KIDDERMINSTER former managing director has been awarded more than £8,000 after successfully denying a Government department's claim he was not an employee and unqualified to receive the money.

Ken Merry's firm, Emkay Computer Services Ltd, of Sandy Lane Industrial Estate, Stourport has since gone into voluntary creditors' liquidation, a Birmingham Employment Tribunal was told.

Mr Merry was seeking redundancy pay and 12 weeks' notice pay after telling the tribunal he was entitled to the awards as a normal employee affected by the closure of a firm.

The firm ceased trading in the summer after facing "great financial difficulties", it was said.

Mr Merry told the tribunal that he had been with the firm since 1991.

The 10 or so other employees had received redundancy pay but Mr Merry, who was paid £1,400 a month gross, had not received anything.

Mr Merry said he was dismissed without adequate notice like the rest of the employees. The Department of Trade and Industry, which faced paying Mr Merry redundancy and notice pay, opposed his claim.

The department was not represented at the hearing but delivered a statement saying that Mr Merry was not entitled to the money because he had been a managing director. Mr Merry denied he was in control of the firm because he had not been a majority shareholder. He had to answer to the other shareholders, he said.

Tribunal chairman, Peter Swann, said Mr Merry had paid income tax and national insurance and that although he was in a senior position he did not hold all the shares and, therefore, did not have complete control of the firm.

As a result, he decided Mr Merry had been an employee and awarded him £5,800 redundancy money and £3,029 notice pay - to be paid by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Mr Merry said afterwards he had since started his own computer business, Essential Computing Solutions Ltd, which he operated from his home at Whinchat Grove, Kidderminster.