THE manager of jewellery shop has moved it out of one of Colchester’s biggest shopping centres in a row over money.

Owen Draper moved his company MAD out of Lion Walk Shopping Centre after a dispute about a deposit for the unit he was renting.

The shopping centre says Mr Draper failed to pay a £3,000 deposit for the unit in Red Lion Yard.

It alleges it gave the 28-year-old a week to pay the cash, but last Thursday he moved out and opened a shop in Osborn Street.

Lion Walk’s lawyers are now chasing Mr Draper for the money and to settle a three-year lease. Paul Bentham, the shopping centre’s manager, said: “He has signed a rental deed for £3,000. That cannot change, it’s a legal document.”

Mr Draper claims he moved out after the shopping centre upped the deposit and misled him over the footfall in Lion Yard – an allegation the shopping centre said was “pure fabrication”.

Mr Draper said: “The footfall was substantially less than we were told it would be. The costs of the rent were too high for the takings in that location.

“Rather than letting down our customers and folding the business, our only sensible option was to move.”