AN ASTHMA sufferer collapsed in an employment tribunal yesterday as she gave evidence against the Home Office for allegedly discriminating against her condition.

Lynne Francis claimed severe asthma was brought on by the stress of meeting impossible quotas in the criminal casework department based at the Plaza, Liverpool.

Mrs Francis said she was promoted into a new department set up to make sure convicted foreign criminals either remained behind bars or got deported.

She said the pressure made a manageable condition spiral out of control

While undergoing cross- examination yesterday the 59- year-old from Old Swan was racked by coughing which escalated to an asthma attack.

Paramedics were called in, and the tribunal was suspended.

Earlier, she told the tribunal that she deported a criminal with 55 convictions for 156 offences. It was a job she was good at, she said, and an important role.

But the unexpected hike in the number of criminal cases she was expected manage sent her stress levels soaring, employment judge Murray Creed heard.

She said: "It was the stress that I was feeling about the release dates of these criminals that made the job so difficult.

"The fact I couldn’t sleep at night was having an effect.

"It’s a really important job. You have to get prisoners that could be released in detention and not released.

"Once released, it is very difficult to get them back into detention."