Supermarket group Asda is to pay �550,000 compensation to a woman who has to use a wheelchair after slipping on a mushroom in one of its stores.

Asda Stores admitted liability for the accident which Beverley Jackson, 44, of Maryland, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, said had left her confined to a wheelchair after a hip operation failed.

A trial scheduled for May to settle the amount of damages was abandoned on Thursday when Asda agreed to settle the claim and pay Mrs Jackson's legal expenses.

Mrs Jackson was initially diagnosed with damaged fingers after she fell at her local Asda in 1997.

Increasing pain

In late 1998 she had to give up work because of increasing pain in her right hip.

An artificial joint inserted the following year failed and had to be removed.

Asda had taken the case to the Court of Appeal claiming new evidence showed her hip problems would have occurred without the accident.

Lord Justice Brooke, Lord Justice Buxton and Mr Justice Morland heard the appeal had been withdrawn by Asda and the settlement agreed.