A psychotherapist who threatened to set her car on fire with her inside after parking it by the hospital where she used to work has been given a restraining order.

Mary-Jo Maher, of Rydons Lane, Coulsdon, says she was fired from Farmfield Hospital in June 2012 after some disagreements about care plans she was assigned to complete for patients.

Since the date of her dismissal she had written to the hospital near Gatwick Airport, part of the Priory Group, asking for an appeal against her dismissal.

And almost a year to the day of being sacked she was close to the hospital after dropping her daughter off at the airport so decided to go and speak to the staff.

The 57-year-old said: "I decided to write a message which said ‘It started here, it ends here. The Priory has ruined my life and no-one gives a damn’.

"I got to reception at about 12pm and I said I’m going to wait until 4pm and if no-one rings me I will pour petrol on my car and if nothing happens then at five I will set it on fire.

"They did not even ring me, they just called the police.

"I think I did it just out of desperation that for the year afterwards nobody would employ me and they said why did someone with your experience fail to do a junior nurse’s job?"

She says the petrol can is one she uses for a trimmer on her allotment and did not have a lighter or matches in the car at the time.

And in a letter she wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron about the incident she says all she wanted to do was get an independent investigation.

But the restraining order bans her from contacting anyone who works at Farmfield Hospital so thinks her last hope will be an employment tribunal.

A Farmfield Hospital spokeswoman said: "The hospital has robust policies and procedures in place to deal with all personnel matters and we are confident they were followed in this instance.

"We are unable to comment on the detail of individual cases."