Furious former workers at Shipley's failed cinema have hit out after their final pay cheques bounced.

Part-time cleaners Joanne Spiteri and Zoe Beetham say they are also angry at being told they'd lost their jobs only hours before Shipley Flicks ceased trading.

The Telegraph & Argus revealed on Wednesday how liquidators had been appointed seven months after the cinema was taken over and revamped by Bradford lawyers Mark Husband and Iqbal Singh Sekhon.

Mum-of-two Mrs Spiteri, 32, who lives in Baildon and is her family's only wage-earner, said she had been left almost £90 out of pocket after cheques for her final two weeks' pay were not cleared, adding that she believed she was also due some redundancy money.

She said: "I've worked there over two years and was totally devastated when I heard we'd be losing our jobs.

"I can't believe the cheques bounced - I think it's totally disgusting and the way we were told was really unprofessional.

"We came in and worked on the morning, they asked us to come back at 2pm and just said the cinema was shutting that night.

"We'd noticed the cleaning materials had been running out for weeks but when we mentioned it they just weren't interested - looking back now something was obviously wrong and they must have known well before then they were going to be closing.

"I've been trying to find out what's going on but when you ring the cinema there's just an answer machine message telling you what films are on!''

Mum-of-two Zoe Beetham, 26, also of Baildon, added: "I've had two cheques bounce as well and just can't believe it because we worked hard for that money. I think it's disgusting and just hope we can get our money back.''

Mr Husband has blamed the decision to cease trading - which has resulted in the loss of three full-time and five part-time jobs - on a lack of customers and difficulties in getting new releases from film distributors.

The board of directors at Marsek Ltd - the company which ran the cinema - has resolved to go into liquidation and appointed a liquidator, Leeds-based chartered accountants Chamberlain and Co.

Shareholders are due to vote on the resolution on April 10 prior to a creditors' meeting.

Mike Chamberlain, director of Chamberlain and Co, said any workers whose pay cheques had not cleared should contact his firm and would be able to make a claim for their money through the Government redundancy fund.

He said: "At the moment we're assisting the directors in preparing a report to put to the creditors and part of that is to ascertain how many people are owed money and how much they are owed.''

Mr Husband and Mr Sekhon were not available for comment.

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