A FORMER TXU executive who was sacked for sending an "offensive" e-mail today lifted the lid on the "extravagant" spending of the stricken power firm.Bob Clarke was dismissed from his £98,000 a year job after forwarding on an e-mail which allegedly portrayed Arab women as ugly and hairy.

A FORMER TXU executive who was sacked for sending an "offensive" e-mail today lifted the lid on the "extravagant" spending of the stricken power firm.

Bob Clarke was dismissed from his £98,000 a year job after forwarding on an e-mail which allegedly portrayed Arab women as ugly and hairy.

An employment tribunal found TXU had acted "entirely inappropriately" by sacking Mr Clarke and awarded him £32,596.

Speaking after the tribunal, the former national sales manager of the company said he felt "vindicated" by the decision and also expressed sympathy for his former colleagues who are losing their jobs.

He said: "If the senior management and the people at the top had actually run the company differently, I don't think they would be where they are today.

"It's the average employee who I think has lost out."

He recalled how the power firm would go to great expense to look after many of the agency workers who they employed.

He said: "I know one person who lived at Belstead Brook hotel for six months and they paid for it. They paid out massive amounts to people and they would take money left, right and centre."

He also claims they splashed out £750,000 on a corporate event in September 2001 to announce the changing of their name.

At the tribunal, the father-of-five consistently denied being racist or sexist and claimed he had no knowledge of any company policy dealing with the issue of e-mail.

Speaking afterwards, he said: "One of the problems is the fact that people felt overworked and that means not everything is communicated as it should be."

The tribunal, held in Southgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, awarded the 42-year-old £24,504 for breach of contract and £8,092 for unfair dismissal.

Mr Clarke, who now lives and works in Gwent, said: "I would have expected to have got paid more but at least I've been vindicated."

He added that he is still unsure about who is going to pay him, but said he would pursue TXU Europe's administrators, TXU and also Powergen.

A spokesman for TXU's administrators today declined to comment on Mr Clarke's claims.

He said: "These are all issues which took place before we became administrators so it's hard for us to comment."