The Stage

Directors of London modelling agencies banned following investigations

Published Friday 30 July 2010 at 15:31 by Matthew Hemley

The directors of two modelling agencies have been banned from running a recruitment company for a combined total of 12 years, after being found guilty of a string of offences, including charging up-front fees.

Ifran Khan, who ran Platinum Models, has been banned for seven years, while Michael Brown, who ran Target Models, has been banned for five.

Both received the punishments from the London Central Employment Tribunal, following investigations by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Khan’s Platinum Models was found to have breached the law by charging fees to models before any work-finding services were provided and for issuing terms of employment to models that did not comply with relevant regulations.

Platinum Models, based in Canary Wharf, also failed repeatedly to provide the EAS investigators with requested information and did not operate a client account, as required by law.

Meanwhile Target Models, which traded in Holborn, breached the law because it held payments owed to models for longer than ten days, paid money received on behalf of models into a business account rather than a client account, and only issued basic terms of employment.

Edward Davey, the minister responsible for employment relations, said: “Unfortunately there is a history of exploitation in some parts of the modelling sector by unscrupulous agencies but these verdicts should act as a warning signal to them. We will take action against rogue recruiters in London, and across the country, who flout the law and undermine the vast majority of agencies who pay fairly.”