A Raleigh-area wedding photography company will be required to pay nearly $1.7 million after consumers reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses for services that they said were never delivered.
A judge on Monday sided with North Carolina’s Attorney General’s
Office in its motion for default judgment against the company Holly Christina
Photography.
The company failed, according to court filings, to comply fully
with a judge’s order to turn over all undelivered photos and videos within 30
days to the couples who paid for them.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office initially sued the
company’s husband and wife owners, Holly Christina Scott Ayscue and Christopher
Ayscue, in February after receiving more than 220 consumer complaints about the
company.
142 consumers had not received refunds of any kind, Assistant Attorney General Mercedes Restucha said during Monday’s hearing. 82 were able to get refunded through their financial institution.
5 On Your Side first reported on the issue in January; the company announced it would close in February.
The state’s motion sought $600,000 for customer refunds and more than $1 million in civil
penalties.
Holly and Christopher Ayscue did not appear during Monday’s
hearing and did not immediately return WRAL’s request for comment.
Monday’s ruling comes weeks after the co-owners of Holly Christina Photography spoke with reporters outside a Winston-Salem courthouse and said they were doing everything in their power to fulfill what they could. Holly Ayscue said an illness contributed to the failure of the business.
In May, a judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering the company to turn over all edited and unedited photos and videos within 30 days. The order also required the company to stop doing business and prohibited its owners from moving company assets.
As part of Monday’s ruling, the Ayscues will not be able to offer photography services, including accepting advance payments. They are ordered to deliver all photo and video footage that consumers have paid for.