Max Clifford Sentencing: Firm Set To Close

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Shamed publicist Max Clifford will not only be saying goodbye to his freedom when he is sentenced later today but also his high-profile PR business, which is expected to close.

Max Clifford Associates, founded more than 20 years ago, was the go-to place for people wanting to promote their kiss-and-tell stories - as well as for celebrity clients including Simon Cowell, who has now unsurprisingly severed all links.

Although in recent years business had been falling away, latest financial records show Clifford's firm was still pulling in more than £1m a year - during his eight-week trial he told reporters his firm lost earnings of that amount.

Workers were in tears as Clifford, 71, was found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault against four women aged between 15 and 19 during an eight-year period from 1977.

The dozen all-female staff he employs were regulars in the public gallery at Southwark Crown Court but they are now all expected to lose their jobs when he is sentenced by judge Anthony Leonard.

Clifford's car parked outside the offices of his PR firm in April

The company moved from plush offices near Bond Street in central London to an office block in Weybridge, Surrey, last year - not far from Clifford's home and his Bentley with personalised number plate is seen regularly on the High Street.

Lawyers are expected to announce the firm will shut as a result of Clifford's convictions and a staff member said: "We've been told not to say anything. There will be a statement, at some point after sentencing, that's all I can say."

Employee Ann Duffy, who broke down in tears as the verdicts were returned, told Sky News: "This is the biggest injustice and I'm very distraught."

Clifford's daughter Louise and several employees supported him at court

Other staff members were also clearly upset and said it had been "the most awful week".

The company's website was inaccessible within hours of the guilty verdicts being returned and at the same time a "horrified" Cowell cut links with Clifford as did Dragons' Den Star Theo Paphitis.

A source close to the PR firm said: "The girls are having long talks with lawyers and advisers. They know at the end of the day they are all going to lose their jobs. Max Clifford Associates will close and they will be out of work.

"No-one wants anything to do with the company and clients are distancing themselves. The girls are all upset - they backed Max all the way and now they have uncertain futures."

One of Clifford's employees told Sky News she had been left "distraught"

The source added: "As a friend and a former client of Max ... the Max that I know has always been a kind, generous and helpful person who has been a fantastic father.

"I hope he can spend his time in prison working out where things have gone wrong for him and come out and be the best person he can."

It has also emerged that earlier this year ago Clifford took out an unexplained £3.5m mortgage on his Surrey mansion with the suggestion being he wanted to put his money out of reach of victims looking for compensation.

During the trial he accused the woman who came forward detailing how he preyed on them of "jumping on a bandwagon" and trying to "cash in" on him by selling their stories.

Clifford in the 1990s with Antonia de Sancha, one of his best-known clients

There is also speculation that his wife of four years, Jo, is looking to divorce him - she was noticeably absent during his trial and was not even called as a character witness.

Last month she was seen near her Cotswolds home without her wedding ring and when approached by Sky News said she did not want to comment on the trial.

Legal experts say Clifford faces at least two years in jail as the judge will have to use guidelines in force when the offences were committed in the 1970s and 1980s.

He has already warned Clifford that being bailed was no indication of how he would be sentenced.

If the offences had been committed in the last decade he could have been given a life sentence, as two of the guilty verdicts on the 15-year-old girl victim involved serious sex crimes.

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