Citybunker worker kept in the dark

But the bar didn't make it to February 14, and Ms Asmanskaja has spent several months since fighting for unpaid wages.

Citybunker was launched as a unique sporting experience for the Wharf, allowing golf-mad punters to receive professional lessons on simulators, try their hand at a weekly poker academy, play on the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii or just kick back with a cocktail at the bar.

However, poor footfall in the area meant the enterprise suffered a chequered existence and the axe finally fell in February when operator Kar Ventures defaulted on rent payments after going into administration two months earlier.

But the closure and the fact the company had been in administration were a surprise to Ms Asmanskaja, who had worked part-time at the venue since the previous September.

She said: "It was just before Valentine's Day. We had 300 people booked in for the Valentine's on Friday and Saturday.

"I was meant to be working, and we had a massive club night planned.

"We were being pushed for more sales and we'd already ordered the champagne.

"On February 11 we went to work and it was completely shut with yellow tape around it.

"We thought it was a fire or something. All the phones were switched off and we couldn't call anyone."

Citybunker's former parent company Canary Wharf (Golf) had gone into administration in April last year and founder Richard Redmond had set up Kar Ventures to re-launch it. But he sold his stake in the new company that December and the administrators were called in to wind up Kar Ventures on December 30.

Ms Asmanskaja said: "I was introduced to Citybunker by my friend, and when they closed she said a similar thing had happened before. All the company were given P45s. They closed and re-opened again, and there wasn't even a gap of a day.

"But this time we were out of a job for weeks, and we couldn't get our P45s so no-one could get another job, go on benefits or get child tax credits."

After failing to resolve the issue through the arbiter Acas, she decided to chase the case through the courts, and was awarded £153 in unpaid wages, £306 in owed holiday pay and £153 in lieu of notice at an employment tribunal in Stratford on July 1.

This sum remained unpaid, so she secured an order of recovery of award at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court on October 29. The court also added interest to the sum decided in July.

Kar Ventures - which did not send a representative to either hearing - now owes £648.72, which will be recovered by the court's own baliffs.

Ms Asmanskaja moved to a job at a hotel near Heathrow in June, while the old Citybunker premises is now occupied by print firm Alta Images.

No one at Kar Ventures was available for comment at the time of going to press, but Ms Asmanskaja admits she is still searching for an explanation.

She said: "There were lovely people there who worked very hard. They didn't get paid either, and I don't know for how long.

"It had so much potential. There was no equivalent and every golfer I knew wasn't keen to play outside during the winter because it was too cold. They had to play in simulators.

"We put so much energy into it, calling local schools and businesses and planning events.

"I would love to speak to one of the managers and ask what happened. I was very passionate about the business. I loved it there."