'Vanished' restaurant owner loses employment tribunals

A restaurant owner has been ordered to pay more than £15,000 to three staff members who weren't paid when the business closed down last year.

Francis Albert Serrano, Sunil Kumar Payyan and Hollie Vernon took Rio's BBQ & Rodizio on Loch Promenade in Douglas to an employment tribunal over unpaid wages.

Mr Serrano and Mr Sayyan weren't paid for their last week's work, while Miss Vernon wasn't paid for six weeks - they said the owner had vanished before the Brazilian eatery shut last August.

Tribunal chair Felicity Kniveton said the company hadn't responded to the claims and awarded the trio a total of £15,552.