Last-gasp payment as mgastore folds
FREELANCE Chris Gleave was owed £3,600 by the Zavvi store in Manchester, for work done photographing guest appearances there over five months. The company – a buyout of the Virgin Megastore group – looked likely to go bust and Chris Gleave stood to lose his money.
So he devised a plan. He went to the store, picked up a pile of X-Boxes and other electronic stuff, took them to the checkout — and presented his invoices as payment. The manager was called, who listened to Chris Gleave’s case but told him he would be arrested if he left the store with the goods.
He didn’t, but next day Zavvi texted to say he would be paid right away — and he was. It may have helped that he had with him fellow photographer Lee Boswell of the Manchester Evening News, who took some pictures.
Chris Gleave said: “It is a shame that in these difficult times we have to resort to tactics that I am personally ashamed of, but it is always the individual freelance that is considered last when it comes to payment.”
In February the Zavvi group finally went bankrupt.