The owner of Preston Guild Hall has admitted ‘glitches in the system’ have resulted in delays to some staff wages being paid.

But Simon Rigby says all employees have been paid their full wages by the end of each pay period.

Mr Rigby made the comments after a former technician spoke out about ‘financial troubles’ at the Guild Hall.

Malcolm Warburton, a former stage technician, told Blog Preston: “I worked at the Guild Hall for 15 years but I left in December (2018).

“There was a lack of payments for staff, or payments would be wrong.

“We would fill out time sheets on a weekly basis and even if you gave them in on time and were precise with what you put on them, we were being under paid.

“There were times when payments were delayed for a few days.

“At first, when Simon Rigby took over it was really good. We had a lot of aspirations, a lot of saying ‘we’ve got money coming into the building’ and there was a lot of interest in doing ‘Level’ and doing up the venue to make more money and make it look better.

“You expect a multi-millionaire to have the resources to pay their employees.”

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Other Guild Hall employees have reported problems with their wages in recent months.

But Mr Rigby said: “We have changed our Payroll Supplier and there has been a couple of glitches but everyone has been paid by the end of pay day each month.”

Simon Rigby took on the Guild Hall from Preston City Council in 2014 and has invested money in the venue, including the opening of indoor games attraction LeVel.

In recent months Mr Rigby has stepped back from directly operating most of the leisure venues within the Guild Hall, letting them out to private firms or individuals to take on the running such as Review cocktail bar and Bond’s ice cream.