Escape making a pound in payment (4)
I believe the answer is:
flee
'escape' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a pound in payment' is the wordplay.
'a pound' becomes 'l'.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'payment' becomes 'fee' (I've seen this before**).
'l' placed within 'fee' is 'FLEE'.
'making' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for flee that I've seen before include "retreat" , "Maybe escape" , "Cut and run" , "Do a runner" , "Leave" .)