Scope Features in the UK has gone into voluntary liquidation with nearly £400,000 in unpaid debts and nearly £13,000 in royalties still owed photographers.
According to its
statement of affairs filed at Companies House on 17 May, individual photographers are owed sums ranging from £30 to more than £2,000.
Scope’s managing director Peter Murphy, has led the company since 1993. He spent almost a year trying to save the business with his own money. In September 2016 he set up a “virtual office” in an attempt to reduce overhead, but due to increased competition and the general decline in industry sales, by January 2018 he was forced to call it quits.
The company’s debts include £43,598 owed to three employees, £330,423 to
Murphy, and £1,872 to HM Revenue and Customs. Its biggest debt of £2,295 is owned
to Bauer Media in Australia. This is followed by £2,145 owed to a UK
photographer to whom Scope acted as an agent.
Scope was founded in 1971 by Dennis Cooper, who was the first full-time staffer at Rex Features photo agency. He resigned as Scope’s co-director in 1997 and passed away in 2013 aged 83.