Wedding photographer Clayton Bennett’s trail of misery

Mar 27 2011 by Joanne Butcher, Sunday Sun

ANGRY couples have revealed an album’s worth of dodgy wedding snaps taken by under-fire photographer Clayton Bennett.

The Sunday Sun has revealed how the calamitous cameraman was taken to court over a shambolic wedding video that ruined a couple’s big day.

Now it has emerged North trading standards chiefs have begun a probe into the snapper, as yet more disgruntled newly-weds have come forward to claim they too were let down by Bennett.

Trading under company names including Lasting Impressions and We Photograph Your Wedding, Bennett has left dozens of furious brides and grooms reeling.

From missing pictures to dodgy prints and jumpy films, the catalogue of complaints spans the past three years. At least one other couple have also won a small claims court case against him.

Bennett’s shoddy work has also been criticised by industry insiders, who say it gives them a bad name.

Mike Trewhella, North East representative for the Institute of Videographers, said: “I am saddened that these couples have had such a bad experience in the North East from someone in our industry.

“It gives the industry a bad name and puts people off getting a wedding video – but we are not all like that.

“The best way to find a reputable wedding videographer is through the institute. We are a recognised trade organisation and all our members have to pass a panel of their peers before they are approved.”

When we contacted Bennett to ask what he had to say in response to the fuming couples, he refused to defend himself. “I have done all the talking about this that I am prepared to do,” he told us. “I feel like I am being persecuted and I don’t want to say anything more.”