George Wright Hotel staff ask: ‘Where are the wages you owe us?’

Thomas Briggs, who worked at the George Wright Boutique Hotel, took his employer Imperial Catering Service Ltd to a tribunal in Leeds last July.  

Mr Briggs claimed the business, operated by business partners Darren Hughes and Mark Casson at the time, owed him £6,685.96 due to “unauthorised deductions in wages” and for “failure to pay holiday entitlement” from December 2020 to April 2022.

The court accepted his claim and ordered the company to pay him the sum in full — but Thomas said he had still not received a penny.

The Advertiser first reported in January that at least seven former staff were awaiting unpaid wages following the November closure of Fitzwilliam & Hughes coffee shop — now the Ministry — which was run by Mr Hughes and Mr Casson. At least another five have come forward since.   

Mr Casson and Mr Hughes, a former Rotherham councillor, left the hotel in February “without a trace” and in “thousands of pounds of debt”, according to the building’s owner Mark McGrail.

Mr Briggs said: “It’s been difficult to have gone through this without being paid money I worked so hard for.

“It’s had an impact on my relationship with my partner, my family and my day-to-day life of paying rent and bills.  

“The way I’ve been treated is appalling.

“How can you get away without paying your staff correctly?

“Things were great under them until 2020, when Covid changed everything.

“Staff weren’t getting paid on time every month and I’d literally have to beg to be paid, which is dehumanising.

“Every day was just like being in a pressure-cooker environment.”

Thomas said he was angry by how Mr Hughes and Mr Casson had treated him.

“I worked so hard for Darren and Mark during a time when they said they were struggling with Covid and low staff,” he said.

“I was a dependable staff member and looking back, they really took advantage of that when they blamed ‘low profit takings’ for not paying staff.

“We were always busy and taking good money because I would cash up on an evening — where did the money go?  

“Why couldn’t this have been used to pay staff?

“No-one should go to work and not be paid.”

Mr McGrail said the situation had been “ridiculous” as he was trying to contend with law enforcement agents and former employees of Mr Hughes and Mr Casson.

“We still have bailiffs asking for money,” he said.

“Customers have turned up with bookings made under them and we had to turn them away because of the state of how things were left, with boxes everywhere and all the rooms a tip.

“We’re talking (with Mr Hughes) about a man who was a former councillor and who had a high reputation in Rotherham.

“I did my best to help them and they’ve left me with so much debt.

“We’re now trying to rebuild the broken pieces they’ve left behind.”

Mr Hughes and Mr Casson were approached for comment but have refused to confirm when staff will be paid their missing wages.

Best Solicitors Online, representing Mr Hughes and Mr Casson, said that Imperial Catering Services would be proceeding with liquidation of the company.