A BURGER restaurant which suddenly shut earlier this month has been accused of not paying its staff's wages.

The Confessional's booths and counter in the Brunel Shopping Centre's food court The Crossing have been empty for the last few weeks and are now cordoned off by red and black dividers.

The chain's Swindon branch opened as Burger Priest in 2019 then changed the name of its branding near the end of 2021.

In the weeks leading up to its sudden closure, the Adver heard from one former employee who criticised the company for allegedly not paying £1,200 of owed wages, and then other people raised similar complaints.

Rita Nazareth worked there for eight months and noticed that, although her first month of wages were paid promptly on-time, the payment for each month after that was heavily delayed, so she quit her job in May.

After leaving her full-time role, it took several attempts just to receive her final two payslips, which totalled more than £1,200 - and all these weeks later, she has yet to receive a penny of the actual money she earned.

Rita said: "They promised to pay me and then didn't. I keep chasing this up with the payroll team and the managers but they have been no help, they keep saying they'll transfer the money but nothing happens.

"There's been a high staff turnover - while I was there, we had four chefs and one manager come and go, and I was often the only one there.

"This is a lot of money to be held back, it's such a headache. I need to pay my rent and bills and send money to family in India."

She alleged that the restaurant changed its name because it went bankrupt, and this change then made it harder for people who worked there under its old label to claim their owed salaries from 2021 or earlier.

Apparently, people claiming to be from court kept coming to the counter and telling the restaurant hadn't paid its bills.

And she knows others who say they too have been left in the dark about when their hundreds of pounds in due earnings will be transferred.

One source who wished to remain anonymous told the Adver: "They owe their staff wages and are refusing to pay, they couldn't care less.

"The manager quit and told the employees to chase after the wages themselves, even though she had just employed a few new members of staff before it shut."

Other branches of the burger chain have received the same criticism.

In May, one Stoke on Trent media outlet reported a protest held by staff who worked at the Hanley restaurant and said they were owed wages from the previous year.

The Adver has repeatedly approached The Confessional for a response to these allegations and complaints about failing to properly pay employees, but has so far received no response.