A former nurse claiming £600,000 damages for a back injury wept as a judge ruled that her symptoms were all in her mind.

Christine Pollitt, 53, said she sustained a career-wrecking back injury moving an 18-stone patient at Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary.

But the mum-of-two, from Peppercorn Avenue, Headington, was left bitterly disappointed when the Deputy High Court Judge, Daniel Brennan, awarded her only £56,000.

She may even have to pay £16,000 back to the Government's compensation recovery unit, as she has already received more money than the judge awarded her.

Judge Brennan told the court there was "no suggestion of malingering". But he added: "The accident cannot conceivably explain the complaints she now makes, such as neck, shoulder and arm disabilities.

"In my view, the reality is that her condition is mental rather than organic. I do not accept that the level of disability - albeit real in her perception - is in fact as bad as she asserts."

Mrs Pollitt, who attended court in a wheelchair, said afterwards: "I have been treated unfairly. It is so very easy for doctors to be able to say where pain stems from or what injuries are. But you have to have suffered pain and disability to know how you feel." The court heard how Mrs Pollitt felt a sudden pain shoot from her neck to her feet when she moved a male patient from his bed to a trolley in 1992. She quit her job and was medically retired in May the following year.

Before the trial she was paid £30,000 by Oxfordshire Health Authority, which accepted 80 per cent of the blame. She also received more than £42,000 from the compensation unit, which pays out in advance to accident victims. The judge said it would be a matter for the compensation unit to decide whether to recover the debt.

Oxfordshire Health Authority's director of finance, Nick Relph, said: "We are sorry that Christine Pollitt is so upset by the result and that the case had to come to this.

"However, we are pleased with the decision. We thought the case was worth fighting. Because this was a claim from a member of staff, all compensation would have to be met by Oxfordshire Health Authority. The decision means we will not have to divert money from patient care." Judge Brennan told the High Court hearing in London yesterday that even if Mrs Pollitt's accident never happened, there was a "strong possibility" that her condition would be no different now.

He added: "It is also a strong possibility she would have descended into the abnormal illness behaviour she now exhibits.

"She now perceives herself as in an invalid state. She herself thinks her life has been totally changed. All that she lived for has now gone."

But doctors' reports dating back to 1987 revealed a history of back trouble, including one diagnosis of sciatica.

The judge said: "She had many, many visits to her GP and exhibited a multiplicity of complaints.

"The 1992 injury explains the initial pain and, on return to work, the lingering discomfort, but does not explain any long-term significant organic disability which would explain the back condition, which she now perceives herself to be suffering from."

Earlier, Mrs Pollitt told the court: "Since the accident, a day has not passed without me being in extreme agony."

Back home in Oxford last night, Mrs Pollitt claimed she would not have to repay any money after a meeting between barristers. She added: "But as far as I am concerned it isn't finished yet."

The £56,000 included £15,000 for her "pain, suffering and loss of amenity" and £10,000 for care given by her husband Tom over the last six years. But the judge ruled she was only entitled to damages in respect of six years' loss of earnings.

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