Stratford businesswoman denies claims she owes people and firms thousands of pounds

The 54-year-old mother-of-two adult daughters has taken deposits from customers who booked art party sessions for birthdays and special treats, only for them to arrive at the studio and find it empty and locked.

The Herald has official confirmation that Spotted Treehouse is ‘no longer a tenant in the Red Lion Court unit’.

Other clients who took part in workshops never received pottery they made and paid for, and months later, are still waiting for it to be ‘fired’ in the kiln.

Hundreds of angry customers have posted on social media claiming Ms Armitage, who also uses the names Lorraune Armitage, Lorraine Tustin and Lorraine Whitrod, owes them cash.

There are also claims of unpaid wages, deposits paid for events that never took place and money owed to other businesses, including a wine merchant and the Stratford Herald.

Several told the Herald how Ms Armitage, who lives in Shottery, told them she couldn’t return their money as her card machine had stopped working, so she would pay them via bank transfer. But the money they are owed never appeared in their bank accounts.

Baker Nicola Moseley, of cake company Sugar Filled Dreams, is one of those who has been left hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

After opening the Spotted Treehouse in Stratford 18 months ago, Ms Armitage commissioned Nicola to supply cakes to the café.

Nicola told the Herald: “She said she’d come up from Essex and she and her ex-husband Martin Whitrod wanted to start a business together.”

She said Ms Armitage told her the bank wouldn’t loan them all they needed and tried to persuade her to invest.

Nicola recalled: “I told her no, thank you, as I didn’t know her well enough and she said she would need to find investors to get the business open and clearly she did, because she opened shortly afterwards.

“She paid me for the first cakes I made, so I made more and more but then she came up with excuses as to why she wasn’t paying me.

“Since then, so many people have come out the woodwork and I can see this is a lot bigger than I thought – just from what I know, she owes thousands of pounds to people. I know I’m never going to see my money again, but I want to make sure her face and name are known out there because she [owes] so many people and it is just not right.”

Ms Armitage denies that she did not pay Nicola. When the Herald tracked down Ms Armitage yesterday (Wednesday), she said: “Everyone has been paid. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been paid for cakes, so I don’t know what she is talking about.”

Despite the backlash, Ms Armitage is still advertising Spotted Treehouse workshops.

When speaking to the Herald, she was keen to take a booking for what she believed was a group of ten customers for a ceramic workshop at £20-£30 a head, including food platters. She told us: “Yes, absolutely, yes, no problem at all.”

When quizzed about where the session would take place, she replied: “Upstairs in the Spotted Treehouse studio, it’s really nice up there.”

When challenged about the studio being locked up and no longer in use by Spotted Treehouse, she repeatedly claimed her business is still operating from there as normal.

She said: “No, no, no, it’s because I’m not there, I just can’t get there, I can’t drive at the moment because I’m recovering from an operation.

“I’ve been in and out of hospital for the last few weeks, so it’s been a bit awkward.”

She added: “My partner has committed suicide, so I am not in the best place right now but we are keeping the business going and we are still doing hen parties on and off site as much as we can – I am getting people to do it for me.”

Ms Armitage repeatedly said: “That’s not true,” when the Herald confronted her with evidence of money she owes.

She added: “We are still taking bookings – we are doing them on site. We are doing some bookings off-site and we go around to different places that we can, because we have a certain amount of stock at home. Everything is still active, we are in and we still have access to the studio.”

One woman, who asked not to be named, loaned Ms Armitage £2,500 in May to buy a potter’s wheel for the studio.

She drew up a contract in which Ms Armitage promised to pay her monthly interest on the loan and ten per cent of any takings but has never received a penny from Ms Armitage.

The woman, who met Ms Armitage when she began cleaning for her, told the Herald: “The alarm bells started to ring but by that point, it was too late.” She added: “That was money I inherited from my mother and my partner doesn’t even know I have lost it. She’s a very devious person.”

Ms Armitage admitted to the Herald that the woman bought a potter’s wheel for her business but claimed she had “lied” and “didn’t want her money back for a year”.

Ms Armitage opened the ceramic painting and arts studio with a promise of ‘creative fun for all ages’. It offered regular workshops on watercolour painting, quilting, knitting and crocheting, upholstery and upcycling furniture costing up to £65 a day.

Another Stratford woman who has known Ms Armitage for three years, claimed she is owed £180 for a loan that was never paid back.