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Clothing retailer abercrombie and fitch has been accused of "hiding" a sales assistant in a stockroom at a London outlet because her prosthetic arm didn't fit with its "look policy", a tribunal has heard.

It is believed Dean is seeking around ￡25,000 in compensation abercrombie and fitch for her experiences under what she described as A&F's "oppressive regime". Her legal team would not comment on the sum.

Dean claims that when she told A&F about her disability after getting the job, the firm agreed she could wear a white cardigan to cover the link between her prosthesis and her upper arm. But shortly afterwards, she was told she could not work abercrombie and fitch on the shop floor unless she took off the cardigan as she was breaking the firm's "look policy". She told the tribunal that someone in the A&F head office suggested she stay in the stockroom "until the winter uniform arrives".

The "look policy" stipulates that all employees "represent abercrombie and fitch with natural, classic American style consistent with the company's brand" and "look great while exhibiting individuality". Workers must wear a "clean, natural, classic hairstyle" and have nails which extend "no more than a quarter inch beyond the tip of the finger".

Dean said today in her evidence: "A female A&F manager used the 'look policy' and the wearing of the cardigan as an excuse to hide me away in the stockroom.

"I knew then that I was being treated different and unfairly because of my disability. Her words pierced right through the armour of 20 years of building up personal confidence about me as a person, and that I am much more than a girl with only one arm … "

Dean said the "look policy" was inconsistent: "Having visible tattoos breaks the 'look policy' and yet I've seen a worker with a tribal arm tattoo which is very noticeable and yet abercrombie and fitch allowed him to work on the shop floor. Clearly their reasoning goes far deeper and I'm sure it's not the cardigan which breaks the look policy, it's the disabled label which does," she said.

She added: "I am born with a character trait I am unable to change, thus to be singled out for a minor aesthetic 'flaw' made me question my worth as a human being.

"Abercrombie taught me that beauty lies in perfection, but I would tell them that beauty lies in diversity, for I would rather live with my imperfection than to exude such ugliness in their blatant display of eugenics in policies and practices."
Under questioning from the three tribunal judges, Dean admitted that an element of the original claim form was false. This stated that she had been repeatedly asked by A&F management to remove her prosthetic arm, but Dean said that this had not been the case, and implied it was a mistake.