The owner of a talent and modeling agency in Evansville (Indiana, US) is ordered to pay up after being sued by models who say she pocketed their paychecks, Stefanie Silvey reports in 14 WFIE.

The C. Taylor Agency has been in business in Evansville, US, for more than a decade. The owner, Theresa Catanese, has been active in the local pageant world for years.

Now, several models say she hasn't been paying them for their time and work. Former clients of Catanese one after another have gone to court to fight for a paycheck they say they never received.

One of the models says she is still waiting on payment from a lengthy job," I did a job for her in October 2005. It was supposed to be a four hour, six day event where I was paid and she didn't pay me for those."

The models say local companies paid Theresa Catanese's agency a paycheck for promotional jobs her models did.

She was supposed to take a percentage of the money and then pay the models, but the models say instead she took it all.

Molli Funk sued for thousands of dollars, and won, after she modeled and provided other models to do a job for Catanese. Funk says she ended up paying the other models out of her own pocket when Catanese didn't, "No one should have to go through this to get their money and what is rightfully theirs and what they are owed. She knows this and she's the one who has to look at herself in the mirror everyday."

Some have appeared in court more than once, after a judge ordered Catanese to pay up, and she didn't.

A judge ordered the money owed to one model garnished from Theresa Catanese's assets after Catanese failed to appear in court a second time with this particular model.

Four models have sued Catanese. In every case, the judge has ruled in favor of the models.