Star date: 25th February 2019

GROTTO COMPANY OWES SALFORD CHRISTMAS WORKERS £25,000

A company which set up and ran a top grotto in the Lowry Outlet during the festive period hasn't paid its elves and Santas around £25,000 in wages, despite being paid by the shopping centre. Company director Tony Jennings, originally planned to liquidate the company but this process has now stopped

"We all loved it, it was a super fun job but a positive has turned into a negative" says elf, Emily Davis "Nobody's really experienced anything like this so we're just, like, 'What do we do?'. He's just left us hanging..." Now a GoFundMe page has been set up to raise funds for legal action.

Full details here...

Over the Christmas period, many families took their kids to see Santa and his elves at a fab grotto in the Lowry Outlet – but now the elves are sad and Santa is skint, as none of them have been paid for all the pleasure they brought to the festive holidays.

"I was hired as an elf, I'd never done it before and we all loved it, it was super fun job but a positive has turned into a negative" explains elf Emily Davis "We had a Santa, a 'reindeer' and the elves; it was really well done and it got amazing reviews. But when it came to an end we hadn't been paid, nor the people who set up the grottoes."

Tony Jennings is listed as the sole director of two Hull based companies, Agility Events and Grotto Hire UK, which ran seven Christmas grottoes around the UK in various shopping centres. All of the centres have confirmed payment to Jennings for the grottoes but the money has not been passed onto the workers. In Salford this amounts to around £25,000.

Five Santas, including Mrs Claus, who worked in 11 hour shifts, are owed around £2,000 each, youngsters who worked their Christmas holidays are owed around £200 each, while elf Emily is owed around £600...

"We started on 22nd November, although some began before then setting up, and we were meant to be paid on 10th December but that was late" Emily recalls "It was our first inkling that he was a bit dodgy. Then, the second pay date was January 10th for the December work but at 11:59pm on the 9th he wrote and said we would have to wait until 31st.

"On the 29th January he said he was liquidating the company and we would have to get in touch with liquidators" she adds "but on 4th February we got an email from the liquidators saying they had dropped the case because they had no information and he wasn't helping them. So now he's sitting there with all this money; he's not liquidating and has not paid us. We're back to square one. It means that I and others worked the whole of December for free. You just don't think it will happen."

Both companies are still active, according to Companies House, and hundreds of country-wide grotto workers who haven't been paid have set up a GoFundMe page, which was originally asking for donations to pay the out of pocket staff but will now be used to try and wind up the companies...

"The chances are very slim of getting anything" says Emily "And we don't know if he's got enough assets to pay everyone as we're at the bottom of the creditors. We've got Santas who are sixty or seventy years old and there's kids of 16 working to get some money. Nobody's really experienced anything like this, so we're just, like, 'What do we do?'. He's just left us hanging.

"We're just heartbroken and confused" she sighs "There's five hundred of us all powerless and don't know what do next. We think he knew exactly what he was doing, and he's just strung us along for as long as possible..."

The Salford Star tried to contact Tony Jennings by phone and email but he didn't respond.

For more details see the Salford Christmas Grotto Nightmare GoFundMe page – click here

And the Grotto Hire Employees Not Paid Facebook page – click here