A charity shop worker has been cautioned for allegedly punching a colleague while customers browsed the shop after she apparently became upset about her holiday entitlement.

Janice Dixon, 50, from Worcester Park, lashed out at volunteer Frances Guillemin at the Fara charity shop in New Malden High Street.

Mrs Guillemin, 63, a retired hairdresser with arthritis, has not returned to work at the store since the assault.

She said: "She hit me so hard it made me lose my balance. It has upset me terribly. I have never fallen out with anybody in that shop before.

"She was just so angry and I just happened to be there.

"I loved that charity and I was happy to give up my time for it.

"It is just unfortunate that I can’t help out doing something that I love anymore."

Mrs Guillemin said Dixon was upset over not getting the holiday time she wanted.

The mother-of-one from Georgia Road in New Malden, had been volunteering at the shop four days a week for nearly six years.

She is also a volunteer for the British Heart Foundation.

Dixon, a paid member of staff, made a "full and frank" admission when police officers arrested and cautioned her following the attack on September 1, at about 3.45pm.

She has been allowed to keep her job.

A Kingston police spokeswoman said: "Following an incident at a charity shop in New Malden a 50 year-old woman from Worcester Park received a police caution for common assault.

"The victim who works as a volunteer for the charity was involved with a disagreement with a paid member of staff from the shop.

"As a result the suspect was arrested for common assault.

"She made a full and frank admission in interview and received a caution."

She said there was a dispute over whether the assault was a punch or a shove, as nobody else had seen what took place.

She added the investigation was now closed unless new information was received.

A spokesman from Fara’s head office said: "We spoke to both people involved and dealt with it at shop level. Both are dedicated members of the team.

"As far as the volunteer is concerned, she was a very long-serving member of the team who had been with us for a few years. She made the decision not to stay on in the shop.

"We take anything regarding staff in the shop very seriously and we dealt with it internally as a disciplinary matter."