An Ardrossan youth worker accused of swindling his employees and a local charity has blasted the claims as “a personal vendetta”.

The Herald reported last week that Tony Adams’ company, National Event Medical Services (NEMS), was accused of failing to pay staff, including a 17-year-old girl who claimed to be owed £500.

We also reported that Adams’ North Ayrshire Community Youth Work (NACYW) group was accused of reneging on a partnership with the Little Box of Distractions, allegedly causing the charity to lose almost £200.

But Tony has hit back, branding the allegations as “lies”.

He told the Herald: “It’s a personal vendetta against me.

“I’m the child protection officer at North Ayrshire Soccer Association, I’m one of the PVG signatories for the Scottish Football Association. I’ve dedicated my life to ensure the safeguarding of young people, so I don’t know what to say about these allegations.”

Kerry Elliot, who runs the Little Box of Distractions, claimed that she is out of pocket after dealing with NACYW.

Kerry said that Tony had wished to form a partnership with her charity. But she claimed that after spending around £150 filling bags for kids Tony had requested, he rejected them. She also claimed she spent £70 on printing new leaflets advertising the partnership, which never manifested.

Responding to Kerry’s claims, Tony said: “We’ve yet to see these bags. We purchased £100 of boxes.

“Kerry came along [to the youth club] and brought some of the wee boxes for some of the kids with ADHD. Some of the kids liked it, some didn’t. I had taken my proposal to the committee. Things take time and she was impatient. To be honest I’m disappointed it’s [the partnership] ended this way. She kept asking me about it and I kept saying ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’ because it was up to the committee.

“I’m just an employee. We answer to the committee, decisions are made by the committee.

“Kerry’s taken out a personal vendetta because she was impatient about getting the partnership.”

One of the youth workers at NACYW, who wished to remain anonymous, supported Tony’s claims. She said: “Kerry said the charity needed £500 to stay afloat for a year. It’s not Tony’s place to give money away, it’s got to go through the committee.

“It [the partnership] just didn’t work out. We just weren’t really a match. We didn’t think they could benefit us or we would benefit them.”

Student Christine Reid had accused Tony of failing to pay her and some of her colleagues when she worked as a first aider with his firm, NEMS. The teen said that she was required to work 10-12 hour shifts at football events but was never paid. She also claimed that staff were not PVG [formerly Disclosure Scotland] checked.

But Tony claims that the staff who were not paid had failed their six-month trial period. He also alleged that some of the work was voluntary and that employees were aware of this.

He said: “These people were on a probationary period. They were not paid and told not to come back after it.

“They were told from the start when it was voluntary work. We would tell them if there was an event coming up and ask if they were free to attend. They were told if they were getting paid and they chose whether to accept it.

“Christine volunteered at every event we had. She put herself forward for them. There was even one where she wasn’t needed but she still came down as an extra body because she wanted to come and learn, get experience to build her confidence.”

When the Herald asked Tony who was in charge of NEMS he replied that it was “a public appointed board” made up of three departments – first aid, clinical and finance.