A row over a charity fund for victims of the Asian tsunami has caused a cafeteria supervisor to quit her job.

Jade Williams resigned from the Little Chef on the northbound A34, at Sutton Scotney, on Tuesday. During the previous week, she and her colleagues had put aside all of their tips for the Tsunami Fund, amounting to £334.

The 19-year-old quit after managers used £28 of that money to make up a shortfall in the cafeteria's till on Monday. The company confirmed that the charity cash had been used, but insisted it was only "a temporary measure".

Officials at Little Chef are now trying to reassure people that the charity fund is not being left out of pocket. A spokesman said: "All they were doing was making sure that the tills balanced that night, and the money has now been reinstated to the fund.

"It seems there's some misunderstanding. The manager had said to her this would only be until the next day." He added that it was unlikely that there would be a problem if Jade wanted her old job back.

She replied that, out of principle, she could not return to Little Chef. "We all put our tips towards the appeal, and lots of our staff can't even afford to."

Jade, who earned £6 per hour as a supervisor, said the action taken over the missing £28 was unprecedented. "The till's been down before, but the managers have never made it up with staff tips."

Jade, of Newton Stacey, near Stockbridge, had worked at the cafeteria in Sutton Scotney for six months.

She was saving up to travel around the world. She now intends to use the money to visit Thailand, one of the nations hardest hit by the tsunami, to offer help to the relief operation. On her return to Hampshire, she plans to study to become a nurse.