‘Lying expertise agent left us with out money and hope’ | EUROtoday

Opportunities had been pouring in: Netflix, soaps and well-paying TV adverts. Actor Thea Beyleveld was excited to see her new expertise agent, Archie Purnell, working arduous to make her goals come true.

His job was to place her ahead for roles and act because the middle-man, negotiating contracts and pay. He then took a minimize of fee for work she booked.

But allegations broke on-line about faked appearing credit and costs not being despatched on time. Actors had been sharing comparable experiences on social media utilizing the hashtag #BodhiGate.

“The one thing that caught my attention was [the] late payments,” Thea, 36, says. “My heart immediately dropped.”

Now, former purchasers inform the BBC they’ve been left hundreds of kilos out of pocket and “in the lurch” by authorities, whereas Archie has declared himself bankrupt.

In the UK, you don’t want a licence to arrange a expertise company and there’s no watchdog to manage them.

Talent companies are legally classed as “employment agencies” and so must adjust to the Employment Agencies Act 2003, which states funds should be made inside 10 days of the cash being acquired.

However, Bodhi Talent Agency purchasers had been pressured to chase money owed to them for months.

In January, Thea requested Archie about fee for her work on Netflix’s The Crown and a automobile advert.

Paperwork seen by the BBC exhibits that the Bodhi Talent Agency had acquired the cash in full for Thea’s work at the very least 5 months earlier than the above messages.

In complete, Thea says she is owed £12,960.

“Words cannot express the rage, betrayal and hurt you have caused me,” she wrote to Archie in a letter after the invention.

Action Fraud referred experiences elsewhere as a result of it would not have investigative powers. The Greater Manchester Police decided this was a civil matter.

Ten former purchasers who’re a part of the performers’ union Equity, together with Thea, had been pursuing civil authorized motion towards him to retrieve almost £40,000, but it surely dropped the case after he declared himself bankrupt.

The BBC has spoken to 30 former purchasers, with others reporting points round late funds or no fee in any respect for jobs they’d achieved.

Jack Bence, beforehand an everyday face on the sitcom Bad Education, signed with the Bodhi Talent Agency in March 2022.

Jack, additionally 36, claims he’s owed £7,079.81 for work on jobs together with an advert for a well known lodge chain and a thriller, Mrs Sidhu Investigates.

With a younger household, each penny counts for Jack – who works one other job for an occasions firm.

In January, he needed to chase Archie for a second instalment for the lodge advert, having acquired “the mother of all tax bills”.

Archie mentioned in a later WhatsApp message he would ship Jack £2,000 of his personal funds, to keep away from Jack “stressing”.

“I’m more than happy to do that, if it takes the pressure off you at the minute – until it comes in,” Archie mentioned in a voice observe.

“That actually made me a bit emotional, because I was like, wow, you’re going above and beyond for something that’s not your fault… that’s how I saw it at the time, naively,” Jack says.

Archie had in truth acquired fee for the job in October 2023.

“[Now] I feel isolated, alone, left in the lurch, but I’m also angry. He will do it again because why wouldn’t he?,” Jack says.

Other actors affected embody:

• Michelle Parker, who claims she is owed almost £4,700 for her work on a Disney+ programme
• Susie Riddell, who says the realisation she could not obtain £2,858 owed for her work on ITV’s Grace as “hugely upsetting”
• Angela Wityszyn, who claims she is owed cash for a job she filmed greater than two years in the past. She says she didn’t signal the contract detailing the charges for the job, and that it options another person’s signature
• Sarah Tattersall, who’s owed £246 for work on a TV pilot and feels “blindsided”

While Jack and Thea solely ever knew Archie by that identify, in accordance with Companies House, his actual identify is Jamie Thomas Fisher.

Originally from Wigan, Jamie began out within the business as an actor.

Although certainly one of Jamie’s personal former brokers says he had little success in entrance of the digital camera, they describe him as “charming” and “over the top”.

Citing cases of what they name “love-bombing” behaviour like shopping for presents or sweets to seize their consideration, “I can see why anyone would believe what he said,” the agent instructed the BBC.

He bounced round a number of companies within the North West, gaining expertise as a fledgling agent, constructing contacts and finally he arrange his personal enterprise.

But others have known as into query the credentials Jamie constructed his fame on.

Jamie reportedly claimed to have skilled on the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and that he labored his approach up at United Agents, a high London company. He wrote in emails that he was a member of the Personal Managers’ Association – which has a code of conduct for brokers to look at.

The BBC contacted all three of those organisations. They all mentioned they’d no document of him.

Several ex-clients have instructed the BBC Jamie despatched them audition alternatives that had been by no means supposed for them.

Layla Shirley from Birmingham signed with the company in June 2022.

Jamie despatched her a promising self-tape alternative, the place actors are chosen by manufacturing firms to document their auditions at residence. It was for an advert with a well known burger chain – regardless of the actual fact she is vegan.

The manufacturing firm later confirmed they’d no document of creating this request for Layla.

“So many times with self-tapes, you get them the night before, and you’ve got to drop everything or cancel your plans to learn the lines, which is a sacrifice we make… If you’ve done all that for nothing, it really is a kick in the teeth.”

Frustrated, Layla started talking about her expertise with different former purchasers and Alexa Morden, host of the 98% Club, a podcast which explores the truth of labor for jobbing actors.

The most essential factor Layla wished to attract consideration to although, was the operation of Jamie’s company for little one actors, Luna Kids Casting.

Luna Kids Casting held auditions in April, July and October 2023, with pop-up banners within the Wigan studio suggesting youngsters signed by Jamie went on to work for Cbeebies, Sky, Disney and Fox.

Sarah Wilson’s 10-year-old daughter was profitable throughout busy auditions and a photoshoot day was scheduled for these youngsters requested to hitch the books.

Parents had been requested to pay £180 in money to Jamie’s Mum on the reception desk.

While this was “incredibly expensive”, Sarah says she felt reassured by the quantity of paperwork requested previous to signing her daughter up.

But prices saved mounting. They included a £66 cost for a kid’s particulars and pictures to be uploaded to the company’s web site and a charge of £120 to signal them as much as Spotlight, a platform the place actors are submitted for jobs.

Agreements additionally define a month-to-month charge of £14.40. These fees had been described as non-refundable.

According to the Agents of Young Performers Association, upfront charges ought to solely be charged 30 days after a consumer and company has entered right into a contract.

Sarah says she later found a pretend credit score added to her daughter’s Spotlight profile. It mentioned she had taken half in a stage manufacturing known as As It Was, with Jamie’s associate listed because the director.

The BBC has looked for this manufacturing on-line and has discovered no document of its existence.

Despite paying just below £500 to Luna Kids Casting, Sarah says just one audition alternative was despatched to them. She moved her daughter to a different company.

“It wasted a year of opportunity [and] it raised her hopes, a little girl’s dreams.”

Jamie was not solely operating expertise companies, however a sister firm known as Access Workshops offering coaching for actors.

When actors signed as much as Bodhi, their welcome emails said it was necessary to attend classes by Access Workshops.

The workshops price between £55 and £60 and concerned actors studying scripts and performing in entrance of high business professionals.

Attendees say Jamie would start by giving a chat, the place he would point out a portion of the charge can be donated to charity, with the logos of Mind, Rainbow Railroad and the Oddballs Foundation seen in images of the classes posted on social media.

In emails seen by the BBC, Jamie and his associate’s signatures featured graphics that mentioned Access Workshops donates a proportion of “overall profits” to organisations akin to Tackle HIV.

We contacted every organisation and none had any document of receiving any donation from the Bodhi Talent Agency or Access Workshops.

Actors like Alexa Morden have used the #BodhiGate scandal to name for change in an business that appears glamorous on the floor.

Her podcast, The 98% Club, refers to 2019 analysis by Queen Mary University of London, which references surveys that discovered that simply 2% of actors within the UK make sufficient cash to outlive.

When points do come up, actors are scared to talk out or be seen as “troublemakers” due to an uneven energy dynamic, Alexa says.

Those who’ve been unnoticed of pocket, like Thea, really feel “let down” by the business.

Equity had been working to convey a declare towards Bodhi Talent Agency and Jamie Fisher to get well almost £40,000 on behalf of 10 members.

But it instructed the BBC it was made conscious Jamie has no belongings, and none are held by the corporate.

In a press release, Equity mentioned: “Having taken legal advice, we have been told that there is no prospect of monies being returned to creditors and that they do not expect to be making any payments at all.

“This outcome is hugely disappointing. Mr Fisher and his rogue agency have treated its clients appallingly, leading to the loss of significant amounts of money owed to them.”

Others have questioned the position of the platform Spotlight. In 2019, former employers warned Spotlight alleging that Jamie was submitting pretend credit for his personal purchasers, in addition to “concocting” productions that by no means existed.

They claimed his “consistent fabrications” may trigger harm to the business, however mentioned they heard little again.

In response, Spotlight instructed the BBC it was supplied with verified references from casting professionals who had been constructive about their enterprise dealings with Jamie Fisher.

It additionally mentioned it had “actively supported affected individuals during the agency’s closure by offering one-to-one assistance and guiding them on how to address their concerns, including directing them to Equity and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI)”.

While it doesn’t regulate expertise companies, Spotlight says it could possibly “remove their services for misuse of our platform or for breaching our terms and conditions”.

The #BodhiGate scandal, first reported by Deadline, has additionally generated dialogue in regards to the restricted regulation of UK leisure, in distinction with the US, the place 22 states require an company licence.

“We see from the US that a structure is possible which can give consumers much more protection and ensure that unscrupulous agents aren’t able to practice in this arena and make promises that they can’t fulfil – alongside charging unfair fees,” Christopher Gabbitas, a business lawyer working within the artistic sector, instructed the BBC.

He means that actors ought to search for established companies, learn any contracts fastidiously and communicate to present purchasers if in search of illustration.

Alongside Equity, actors we spoke to mentioned they had been within the strategy of, or had, submitted experiences to the EASI, the government-backed watchdog which polices UK employment companies. It has the ability to bar people from practising.

The BBC understands it’s presently investigating complaints round Luna Kids Casting and the Bodhi Talent Agency.

In the meantime, Thea and Jack have been left questioning if they’ll ever see any of the cash they are saying they’re owed.

“It really makes you question everything,” Thea says, including that she feels let down, most of all, by somebody she as soon as considered a pal.

Jamie Fisher has not responded to any requests for remark by the BBC.