Staff at a photo shop have been left without jobs after the owner closed the store suddenly and disappeared.

Joanna Galogavrou, manager of Snappy Snaps in North Street, Brighton, said she and the other staff were given two hours notice last Saturday (APRIL 14) to get all the orders to customers and tie up lose ends.

The 27-year-old, of Freshfield Road, Brighton, said the shop's director Barry Ogilvie said he could no longer afford the rent and that the shop would close at the end of the day.

She said: "I don't understand why he couldn't afford to pay the rent because the business has been doing so well.

"There are now five of us out of a job and the director has disappeared off the face of the earth. Not even head office can contact him. They said they had no idea the store was going to close.

"We were given two hours notice that the shop would be closing. It is outrageous and ridiculous because we should have had four weeks notice at least."

Miss Galogavrou said all the staff were owed about six weeks wages and that she had been living off her savings but money was running low.

She said staff at Snappy Snaps' head office in London could not repossess the shop, which is franchised, because it is still owned by Mr Ogilvie and they would only be able to reopen after speaking to him.

She said: "There are still some photos and t-shirts which haven't been picked up.

"Head office went in on Monday and the computers were all gone so I think Mr Ogilvie must have been back in to take them.

"I have worked there for two years and this is how he treats us. No one knows what is going on and we are all upset about the whole thing."

A Snappy Snaps spokeswoman said: "We are just as shocked because we had absolutely no inkling that this had happened. The first we knew of it was when a customer phoned up on Monday because they could not get into the shop.

"We have tried to contact Mr Ogilvie but have had no success. We collected customers' work and contacted them and we have put a note in the window with a number for people to contact us.

"But until we speak to Mr Ogilvie there is nothing we can do about the shop because his name is on all the documents."

Snappy Snaps is not the first photographic shop in Sussex to face financial problems.

Just before Christmas, 60 staff working at photographic studio Olan Mills lost their jobs when the chain, which had shops in Hove, Brighton, Worthing, Eastbourne and Crawley, went bust.

Customers were told they would not be refunded their money for family portraits or baby pictures and staff were kept in the dark about the firm's financial difficulties and were not offered advice about pay or their entitlements.