Public humiliation defeats stubborn gym

Charlotte Snowden/Press Association Images

Anyone who has ever signed up for a gym and then lost enthusiasm within weeks will realise just how impossible it is to wriggle out of a contract. One gym member faced unemployment, she was pregnant, and was about to move 12 miles from her nearest gym, yet LA Fitness refused to cancel her two-year verbal contact.

Then she employed a new and valuable weapon in her fight against the charges - public humiliation.