The Stage

Anonymous threats prompt Hurst to end campaign against rogue agents

Published Tuesday 9 September 2008 at 13:35 by Matthew Hemley

Clarification

A recent article (“Anonymous threats prompt Hurst to end campaign against rogue agents”, September 9) reported that up-front fees activist Clive Hurst had ended his campaign against rogue agents. In fact, although he is ending his local action - due, he stated, to his frustration over the lack of any punitive action taken by the Employment Agency Standards to enforce its regulations - Mr Hurst is continuing his campaign on a national level by lobbying for an all-party parliamentary committee, as our article later reported. We are happy to clarify the matter.

Up-front fees activist Clive Hurst is to end his campaign against rogue agents after 11 years, claiming his efforts have left him out of work and led to repeated anonymous threats.

Hurst, who took up his fight against companies charging fees up-front to aspiring performers in 1997, said he was disillusioned by years of government inaction.

He admitted his campaign had affected his career badly and his “credit cards could no longer take it”. Speaking out against companies meant he had found it hard to get agency representation and he revealed he had not had a full day’s work for more than a year.

“I have not had a single job out of this and have not benefited financially in any way. Anyone who says I’m doing it for my own purposes is totally and utterly wrong,” he said.

Hurst said the campaigning had taken its toll on his personal life, particularly following recent events in which some opponents of his campaign have tried to intimidate him in his own home.

“I think 11 years of getting nowhere and of my family - particularly my wife - being upset in this manner, means it is time to bring it to an end,” he said.

Over more than a decade, Hurst’s efforts have seen several Advertising Standards Authority adjudications brought against talent agencies for misleading adverts about their services and charges.

He has been featured in several BBC programmes and radio shows about the issues of up-front fees and has managed to secure refunds for several victims of scams.

In 2006, his efforts saw him named Hero of the Year by the Daily Mirror and also helped him secure a seat on Equity’s council. But despite lobbying the government on the issue of up-front fees, with hundreds of emails sent directly to John Thorpe, head of Employment Agency Standards, which carries out routine inspections of agencies and investigates complaints about agency conduct, Hurst said nothing had changed.

He said new laws brought in this year - preventing companies from taking money off a potential client for a period of seven days - were “farcical”.

“I don’t intend to take any more cases to the EAS because it is a complete and utter joke. They are ducking and diving and making a mockery of the complainants,” he said.

Instead, Hurst is calling for an all-party select committee to be set up to investigate the lack of action by the EAS over rogue agents.

Hurst vowed he would no longer be contacting hotels to warn them about rogue agents who use their venues to hold casting days where they scam local residents, and added he would not be tipping off local BBC services to warn them about rogue agents operating in their area, which has previously resulted in regional investigative programmes looking into the matter.