Bailiffs who found fame on a TV show are chasing their old bosses for £200,000.
Steve Pinner and Paul Bohill knocked on doors across the nation on Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away.
Now they have launched a case in London’s High Court claiming DCBL – the firm they worked for on the programme – owes THEM.
Ironically the same court issued writs the two bailiffs enforced for DCBL on the fly-on-the-wall show.
They have since left the firm and accuse its owner Gary Robinson of underpaying and breaking agreements.
There were 81 episodes of the Channel 5 hit, which regularly got 4.5 million viewers from 2014 to 2018.
Mr Pinner, 66, and Mr Bohill, 77, from Ramsgate, Kent, claim they agreed to work for DCBL when the show started in exchange for a 20% share of the company, directorships and a 60% cut of enforcement work that featured on the documentary.
But they claim their earnings actually fell despite profits rising at DCBL – full name Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd.
Last year Mr Robinson allegedly told Mr Pinner “the share agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was written on”.
The writ says: “They featured very prominently in the programme and were central to the great success of the pilot first series and the further series which followed it.”
Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away was cancelled in 2018 and last year C5 launched a similar show, Call The Bailiffs: Time To Pay Up.
The axe came after a string of controversies. One bailiff entered a house unlawfully and a woman received “substantial damages” over the misuse of private information.
Mr Robinson told the Sunday People the duo’s claim had no “validity”. He added: “It’s just a couple of disgruntled ex-employees.”
