Media recruitment agency The Staff Room has gone into liquidation – the day before a former employee took the company to the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.

The Staff Room, based in London’s Regent St, called in liquidators on 21 August – even though it was to face a tribunal claim by former consultant Annie Wilce the following morning. Former MD Virginia Deyong now runs a company called The Staff Bureau, which has the same telephone number as The Staff Room.

At the hearing on 22 August, The Staff Room admitted it had been wrong to dismiss Wilce, a single mother from Hackney, north London, without going through disciplinary procedures.

The tribunal ruled that The Staff Room should pay Wilce £2,236.33 in unpaid commission, and costs of £1,750 plus VAT. However the issue of compensation for unfair dismissal remained unresolved.

Deyong said that her company had dismissed Wilce without disciplinary proceedings on the basis of bad legal advice.

Deyong also dismissed her solicitor mid-hearing, after he failed to present evidence from witnesses on time.

But the company refused to pay Wilce compensation for the dismissal, because it maintained that her behaviour had been inappropriate.

According to The Staff Room, Wilce had revealed financial details about her former company to a client, and made anti-Semitic comments on the phone. It was also alleged that Wilce had on several occasions flown into a rage at Deyong, who told the court: ‘Because of her behaviour, I was left with no alternative but to dismiss her.’ The Staff Room dismissed Wilce for gross misconduct on 19 February. She has since founded her own recruitment business. Wilce strenuously denied Deyong’s claims and said she was one of the company’s top billers until she was dismissed.

The case is due for review in January.