Actress and lapdancers alleged of kidnapping nightclub boss over £42,000 Cheltenham Festival debt

• Charlotte Devaney and three lapdancers denied charge of kidnapping
• Devaney recruited 60 lapdancers to work for Curtis Woodman in 2012
• Mr Woodman's pop-up nightclub was closed because dancers stripped off
• He refused to pay Devaney and lapdancers more than £42,000
• He told Bristol Crown Court he was kidnapped six months later
• Devaney and lapdancers have now been cleared of kidnapping
  Three lapdancers and an actress have been cleared of kidnapping a club boss who failed to pay them £42,000 in wages.
  Charlotte Devaney, 34, a DJ and producer who starred alongside comedian and actor Simon Pegg in comedy How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, recruited 60 lapdancers to work for Curtis Woodman, 34, at his pop-up nightclub during the famous Cheltenham Festival in March 2012.
  
  Authorities closed the Embassy Club in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on its third night because the dancers stripped off - despite rules ordering them to wear nipple tassels and bikinis.
  Mr Woodman refused to pay Devaney and the lapdancers more than £42,000 they had earned during the club’s first two nights.
  He told Bristol Crown Court that six months later, on September 3 2012, Devaney, three dancers and two brothers, who had been hired as 'heavies', arrived at his work premises in Tewkesbury.
  The local businessman claimed he was bundled into a BMW, beaten up and forced to transfer £4,800 into Devaney’s bank account during a 'terrifying' two-hour ordeal.
  Devaney and lapdancers Mandy Cool, 29, Stephanie Pye, 31 and Rachel Goodchild, 24, denied a charge of kidnapping Mr Woodman.
  Brothers Alex Morris, 23, and Robert, 27, denied the same charge, along with two counts of robbery - relating to £60 cash and Mr Woodman’s £4,650 Breitling Skyland Avenger watch.
  A jury of seven men and five women cleared the women following a three-and-a-half-week trial. Alex Morris was convicted of the two robbery charges, while Robert Morris was cleared of both.
  Judge Geoffrey Mercer QC thanked the jurors, who reached unanimous verdicts, for their service in the case.
  The judge said: 'In any event, we understand that jury service causes you great inconvenience and disturbance to your lives.
  'Without members of the public such as yourselves giving up your time for jury service, our system of justice cannot operate.'
  Mr Woodman told the jury that he was 'surrounded' by the women - dressed in miniskirts, Daisy Duke shorts and stilettos - and feared for his life during the 'terrifying' incident.
  
  
  He said £42,000 of the disputed money related to one customer, named only as 'Steve' in court, who spent six hours with lapdancers at the club.
  

  

  Steve, who had won £50,000 at the races that day, spent £700 on drinks and racked up the bill drinking and singing Rod Stewart songs with the lapdancers.
  But the following morning, he contacted his credit card company to say the bill was fraudulent and an investigation was launched - freezing the money for 120 days.
   
  Police later decided the money had been legitimately spent and it was transferred to Mr Woodman, who failed to pass it on to the women who had earned it.

  He told the court this was because they had breached contracts agreeing to wear nipple tassels and bikinis, leading to the club being closed on its third night.
  'If you have ever asked a stripper to keep her clothes on when she is working, it doesn’t happen,' Mr Woodman, who gave evidence behind a screen, told the jury.
  'I was constantly bombarding them - "Put your clothes on, we are going to get shut down".'
  Devaney said 19 girls were left unpaid after the closure and constantly phoned her to find out where their earnings were.