A cafe boss at a popular Plymouth rugby club has denied walking out – saying he was barred from the premises.
The Acorn Cafe at Plymstock Albion Oaks shut without warning in the New Year.
The club says that boss Rob Cullen had not returned to work after Christmas and one former employee said she was owed several hundred pounds in wages.
But Mr Cullen, aged 48, has got in touch with Plymouth Live and said that he never walked away.
He said: “I did not walk out of the cafe. I was actually forced out.”
Mr Cullen, a former chef at the Wrigley’s factory in Plymouth, said club chairman Nigel Higginson emailed him to say he was in breach of contract due to unpaid rent.
He said that Mr Higginson told him to stay off the premises – and that the alarm code had been changed.
Mr Cullen admitted that he owed rent but insisted there was a three-month grace period in his lease to allow him to pay back the money. He said that the club claims he owes about £1,000.
But he said that the email barring from the premises came out of the blue on January 3.
Mr Cullen, living in Exeter, said that he had stock, catering equipment and personal belongings such as tools and golf clubs still at the cafe.
He admitted that he owed money to two members of staff, though not the “hundreds” claimed by one.
Mr Cullen said: “I have paid them £100 and I will send them more if I get the chance but I cannot work to make a living.”
He added that the matter was in the hands of solicitors and he did not know his next move – but he would not be going back to the cafe he has run since April 2017.
Mr Cullen said: “It is just too soon at the moment. I have just kept my head down and avoided the backlash which I have been getting left, right and centre.
“I just wanted to get my side of the story across.”
Mr Cullen has faced a barrage of abuse over social media and had admitted switching his phone off in the aftermath of the cafe’s closure.
Mr Higginson said simply: “The matter is in the hands of our solicitors”.
He told Plymouth Live last month that the club was looking for someone else to run the cafe during the week.
Mr Higginson said that former staff and volunteers had managed to feed hungry players on matchdays.
