The electronics company Sony has paid £4,600 to settle a case of unpaid wages with a former intern, who worked for three months without pay in their offices on Hills Road.

The dispute emerged when Chris Jarvis, 25, found himself working nine-hour days testing three-dimensional graphics as a “3D Environment Artist intern”, having expected to be shadowing a Sony designer when he applied for the position.

Mr Jarvis, who lives in Milton Keynes, was spending up to three hours a day commuting to and from Cambridge for what he described as “time-consuming and boring work”. Some weeks into the internship he approached the human resources department to “politely inform” the company that he felt he was due at least the minimum wage (£6.19) for the hours he had worked.

"If they got someone in to do the job it would have cost £100 a day,” said Mr Jarvis. “But they said that I was a volunteer so not entitled to any pay." He reported Sony to HM Revenue and Customs, and a hearing was scheduled before a tribunal. The settlement, weeks before the date of the hearing, amounted to £1,000 more than Mr Jarvis had originally claimed. The company then asked him to sign a gagging order in respect of the payout; he declined this request.

Employers do not have to pay the minimum wage to an intern if the internship involves only observing or shadowing. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Jasmine Patel, of Leigh Day solicitors, said: “On a legal level, under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, interns who meet the definition of a ‘worker’ are entitled to be paid at least the national minimum wage.

“Voluntary workers can only be employed unpaid by a charity, a voluntary organisation, an associated fund-raising body or a statutory body. You can be a volunteer worker at a commercial company, but you still qualify for the minimum wage.”

Gus Baker, of Internaware, an organisation campaigning on the issue of unpaid internships who supported Mr Jarvis in the dispute, said he was “extremely pleased” with the result. Speaking to Varsity, Mr Baker said: “Companies understand that interns need to be paid, but unless people stand up for themselves, it’s very difficult to make that happen.”

In April, it emerged that 100 unnamed companies are being investigated by HMRC over suspected abuse of unpaid internships. “If any Cambridge students aren’t being paid for internships, we can help them claim their pay back”, Mr Baker added.

Sony declined to comment.