An independent eye specialist has claimed a victory against the big boys after her complaint against an industry giant was upheld by the advertising watchdog.

Lisa Morgan wrote to the Advertising Standards Authority after spotting an advertisement for Specsavers in a national newspaper which carried the headline "If you are looking for an optician we have the most qualifications."

Mrs Morgan, who works with husband Andrew at Morgan White Optometrists in Kidlington, explained: "I am a qualified optometrist and Andrew has a PhD, so I was not very happy to see that Specsavers was claiming it had more qualifications.

"So I wrote to the ASA saying that it was misleading because it implied that other companies were less well qualified.

"I feel this is unjust, as all optometrists are registered with the General Optical Council and to maintain registration there is now compulsory continuing education."

Four months later Mrs Morgan discovered her complaint had been upheld.

In its judgement, the ASA agreed the headline implied Specsavers' optometrists were better qualified and further statements made within the text of the advertisement could have been misniterpreted.

It added: "We concluded that the ad could mislead by ambiguity."

The ASA has ruled the advertisement should not appear again in its current form, although no financial penalty was imposed on Specsavers.

Mrs Morgan added that she was delighted to have won the case but disappointed that Specsavers escaped further penalties.

Specsavers spokesman Tom Bradshaw said: 'The ad neither stated nor implied that our optometrists are more qualified than other optometrists.

"The only reference to individual levels of qualification was the text, "we don't just employ highly-qualified staff," which we do not believe implied a higher level of qualification.

"We do not believe the ad suggested our optometrists are more qualified than those of our competitors."