A WOMAN is suing a Saudi Arabian prince’s firm for sacking her when she said she wanted to work from Morocco instead of Oxfordshire.

Olivia Vilalta claims she was unfairly dismissed by Glympton Estates, which runs a 2,000-acre estate with a stately home near Woodstock, and is owned by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

An employment tribunal in Reading was told Mrs Vilalta’s work included booking cars and arranging hotels for the prince’s staff – a job she held for nine years until she was sacked.

In October last year, she went on holiday to Morocco, but decided to stay for a year, claiming it was agreed with her line managers, Usama Mohsen and Pat Burrell. When they ordered her to return, she stayed in the North African country.

She was fired three months later on the grounds that she was in breach of her contract.

Speaking to Judge Jessica Hill on a telephone loudspeaker from Morocco, Mrs Vilalta said: “During the nine years I have been working for the family, I have always been moving around.

“I was in London, I worked from France, I worked depending on where I was and when I spoke with my manager (Mr Burrell) about going to Morocco for one year, he said that was absolutely no problem.”

James Anderson, representing Glympton Estates, told the hearing: “She wrote a letter on August 24 asking to move to Morocco, so she understood that the ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ of that comes from Glympton and that response was ‘no’.

“Having had that ‘no’, the claimant moved to Morocco anyway.”

The case was adjourned for a full hearing to take place in Reading in January next year.