BERLIN (Reuters) - A man and a woman in Germany lost their jobs after pretending to be on a training course while taking an S&M sex holiday at their employer's expense.

"We've never had a case quite like this before," said a spokeswoman for a labour court in Dortmund on Thursday.

The pair who worked at a Dortmund retirement home said they had been at a further education seminar in eastern Germany, for which their employer duly paid.

But after a tip-off, the home found out the middle-aged couple had actually taken a holiday apartment used by devotees of sado-masochistic sex near the Dutch border.

When the couple denied they had skipped the seminar, their employers took them to court. The pair agreed to resign when it was found that the training course had never taken place.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Giles Elgood)