A WOMAN has finally won a long legal battle to retrieve a £350 deposit on kitchen which was never installed. Leigh Jones, of Vicar's Hall Gardens, Boothstown, went to court five times and used bailiffs against Farnworth-based Michael Wilsons Kitchens to get her money back. She says she told a rep the kitchen was needed desperately because her old kitchen had already been ripped out, leaving ugly plaster walls.

Mrs Jones said she paid the deposit last year on the understanding it would be ready for Christmas and cancelled the order at the end of December when no work had been done.

But when she asked for her deposit back Mr Wilson refused, claiming the kitchen had been ordered for January.

A judge ruled in favour of Mrs Jones when she took company director, Michael Wilson to court in April and when he still refused to pay up she sent in bailiffs to recover goods from his premises in Farnworth.

But Mr Wilson halted the action by claiming the goods were the property of another business owned by him, Link Design against which there was no judgement.

He then appealed against the action but lost in court. Mrs Jones now has her deposit but says she is still waiting for £249 costs awarded to her.

Mr Wilson said there was never an agreement to install the kitchen before Christmas. He told the BEN: "The kitchen could never have been built before Christmas. It is absolute nonsense. The main reason we lost the case was because the sales rep involved has left the company and was not in court.

"Mrs Leigh went back on her agreement and we have in the past taken customers to court for cancelling and have won."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.