HARD KNOCK CAFE
Mums left skint at Christmas as eaterie they worked in closes owing them £1000s
FOUR mums say they are penniless for Christmas after their cafe owner boss shut up shop – owing them thousands in wages.
Geraldine Cronin, Margo Faughnan, Karen Lowe and Helen Haughnan are unable to buy their kids presents after the sudden closure of the Hard Jock Cafe in Motherwell.
And they claim they are owed more than £4000 in total and boss Derek Duffy, 41, has vanished.
Geraldine, 34, who has two sons aged seven and 11, claims she is owed £500.
She said: “What he has done is a disgrace. How do you tell a seven-year-old that Santa isn’t coming?
“I’ve not got presents to give them. I was waiting for payday and now there is nothing and I’m struggling to pay the bills.”
Geraldine was expecting to be paid on November 30 but two days before that, she learned from a co-worker that Duffy was closing the cafe, which only opened in August.
She said: “He never once came and explained to us we wouldn’t be paid. Instead he became the invisible man and left us out of pocket.”
Margo, 50, who worked at the cafe from August, says she is owed £1265.
She said: “I’ve got a mortgage and bills to pay. I’ve not got one Christmas present for my little grandson as I was waiting to buy everything as soon as I got paid.”
Karen, 27, was employed by Duffy on October 10 and says she is £1300 out of pocket.
She said: “I have absolutely nothing to give anyone for Christmas.”
When contacted, Duffy did not dispute there were unpaid wages but claimed the sums owed were lower – a total of £2827 to the four women and another worker.
Duffy said: “My business partner and I invested a lot of money and lost it.
“At the end of November, we were hit with a big bill and couldn’t pay anyone.”
He claimed he had offered to let his staff run the cafe to make as much money as they could.
Duffy added: “I tried to do the right thing. The women are left without jobs and pay before Christmas?
“We are out of jobs also and out of pocket for trying to make a business work.”