Pair slam recruitment firm over 'dump' pubs

by John Harrington

An angry couple who paid a pub recruitment company £5,000 to find them a dream pub claim that they have been offered a series of 'dumps.

Philip Gunthrie, and his wife, Somporn, paid the money to Inn-Direct after seeing an advert in The Sun.

They claim they were made to work 'like skivvies in the training course and were offered sub-standard pubs. In April, the couple met Inn-Direct's recruitment manager Terry Webb at the Duke of York in Oxford.

After handing over £5,000, the couple had to wait a full four months before they were placed on a two-week training course at Punch Tavern's Branston Arms near Burton-on-Trent.

They said Inn-Direct promised that the training would cover a range of areas, including hygiene rules, cash handling and health and safety.

But Gunthrie said the course mostly involved cleaning, with a little bit of paperwork. 'We were just used as skivvies, he said. 'I wouldn't say I could go into my own pub after the training.

The couple were told that they would be placed in a pub within three to six months after the training had finished. Inn-Direct said the couple would be paid 13% of pub takings.

Gunthrie said the first pub that they viewed, the Flying Fish in Norwich, was 'quite a dump. Although it 'had potential with a large garden and car park he said it needed 'a lot of work. For example, the cellar cooling system had broken.

But the other two pubs they were shown both in Huddersfield, Yorkshire were 'complete dumps.

The Green Cross in Wakefield Road was boarded up, with broken windows, sofas dumped in the garden and urgent work needed to repair the bar. It also had an infestation of rats, Gunthrie said. The second Huddersfield pub, the Woolpack in Lockwood Road, was in a similarly poor state.

Despite leaving several phone messages seeking their money back from the company, the couple have not heard from Inn-Direct since they viewed the Huddersfield pubs.

Inn-Direct has declined to comment.