TV presenter Lisa Aziz has accused her employers of discrimination after they launched an investigation into her expenses claims.

The co-presenter of the ITV West Country programme believes her employers are trying to save money and are using "seven bits of paper" to try to oust her.

Ms Aziz is being investigated by her employers over several expenses claims she has made.

But she insists the issues surrounding her treatment go beyond expenses and has spoken with lawyers to fight the allegations.

The £150,000-a-year presenter has not appeared on the programme for a month, but she told the Post she has not been suspended and is off work because of stress brought on by the accusations.

Her place on the nightly news programme, which is broadcast across an area stretching from Gloucestershire to Cornwall, has been taken by two younger presenters, Claire Manning and Ellie Barker.

She said: "What I have claimed is what I have claimed for years. They are trying to pin this on me for cost-cutting but this is working on lots and lots of levels.

"The smallest part of the story is expenses. They have mishandled me and mishandled this issue and it is looking bad."

Ms Aziz said that she had gone into a meeting, expecting a chat with her manager when a member of staff from the human resources department showed her receipts.

She said: "They went through these bits of paper and had full explanations for every one. I said I could not understand why there was a problem now, my boss had signed every one off over four years. It was for about £200, which is small fry.

"As a lead presenter it is well known you get your hairdressing and beauty products and dry-cleaning paid in expenses."

Ms Aziz joined the Bath Road-based programme four years ago from Sky and said she had intended to end her career in the West.

She said she has been to two meetings with her employers, the first, which she thought was going to be her usual get together with her boss to discuss the programme, when the receipts were mentioned, and another meeting as part of the human resources procedure.

She said: "Having worked flat-out for 26 years with an unblemished record, multi-award winning, this was a shock."

Ms Aziz said she was with her boss and team in February when they went to pick up their first Royal Television award for their coverage of the Weston pier fire when a colleague paid for champagne on a company credit card.

She said it was "beyond a joke" that they were now dangling a receipt in her face for £5.75.

Ms Aziz said: "I really did think that someone would come in with a camera and say "Gotcha" or tell me it was a hidden camera thing. But we are not talking about receipts anymore. That is where discrimination came in, whether that would have happened to a white male colleague, I don't know.

"In my view, this is about race discrimination, sex discrimination and ageism. When they asked me to work on a piece about terrorism, they told me to use my 'terror contacts' as if I was part of a West Al Qaeda cell. I was upset by that and told them why, but it was never dealt with."

Ms Aziz claims that other members of staff have had to leave before and there are no longer lone parents working on the programme.

She said she would have had more respect for her employers had they got rid of her during the round of redundancies that came as part of the recent merger of ITV West and neighbouring ITV West Country.

When the Bristol Evening Post contacted ITV West about Ms Aziz's claims, a spokesman said: "We vehemently deny any allegations relating to discrimination and will vigorously defend our position in this regard."