Staffordshire spa retailer placed into liquidation

A STAFFORDSHIRE-based retailer of bath and spa products has been placed into liquidation.

Three partners from the Trade Price Group, which also trades as Spa Serve, UK Hot Tubs and Magic Spas from its base in Rugeley, have also been made bankrupt.

The company hit the headlines earlier this month when five people were arrested in connection with a fraud investigation.

Insolvency practitioners BCR said Philip Wood and Kevin Lucas from the firm had been appointed liquidators of the partnership and trustees of the three partners in an effort to recoup money for creditors.

Mr Lucas said: “Despite being appointed very recently, BCR have rapidly secured possession of a large number of assets owned by the various parties and are in the process of realising them to recover monies outstanding to creditors.

“There are several hundred creditors affected by these events and clearly a search of the internet will highlight the amount of interest in this matter especially given the arrests made only two weeks ago by Staffordshire police.

“To date we are aware of claims in excess of £2m, a large number of which appear to be from customers who paid deposits but did not receive their goods, although it is too early to confirm how many customers may be affected as we are currently sorting through a large number of claims, which is growing daily.

“A number of creditors will of course be concerned whether they will be paid, but it is far too early to comment on the timing or quantum of any payments to those affected, however we are aware of a number of avenues of recovery that we have started to pursue vigorously.”