News has come in to the Watercooler of a company and two individuals that suppliers and freelancers would be well advised to avoid.

Euan Maclaren (big in “Asset Management” apparently) and Eamonn O'Keefe are the individuals in question: Protocol Media Group, the company. These two recently used the services of a freelancer to work on one of their projects (George Michael: Portrait Of An Artist).

Once the work was completed (in September 2023) the freelancer sent off her invoice, confident in the expectation that it would be paid within the usual 30 days (confident because she believed that these two characters were honest and fair dealers). They were not however and the bill remains unpaid over a year later, with excuses for not paying it rolling in from the day it was submitted.

When asked why they weren't paying up what they owe, Euan Maclaren (apparently a chartered accountant!) decided to trot out the familiar dog-ate-my-homework tale of penury on the basis that his clients hadn’t paid what they owed (as if that was in any way relevant) so he wouldn’t pay his own bills either. Suggestions that he might like to do the right thing anyway did not go down well.

One would have thought that between them these two shambling amateurs might have thought about this potential problem before recruiting and using a freelancer’s professional services. It seems not. It does remains to be seen however how their other clients view these two’s behaviour. Details to follow.

Euan Maclaren and Eamonn O’Keefe, Protocol Media Group: Freelancers Beware!

Since writing this, more information has come in. It seems that this freelancer is not the only one who has been bilked by these two as they appear to have left a trail of broken relationships and unpaid debtors behind them on this project. To reiterate then: best advice for all is to steer very clear of having any financial dealings with either them or their company in the future.