A meeting of creditors left £1million out of pocket after a Suffolk building firm went into voluntary liquidation took place on Monday.

East Anglian Daily Times: Sam Shutlar (Samuel David Construction)Sam Shutlar (Samuel David Construction) (Image: Archant)

Samuel David Construction limited, based on Quayside in Woodbridge, was placed into creditor’s voluntary liquidation on July 27, owing more than £1m to 73 businesses and individuals all over East Anglia.

Nicholas Cusack of Parker Andrews, a firm of insolvency practitioners based in Norwich and Ipswich, met with four of the creditors appointed to represent the creditors’ interests. They included a couple seeking £160,000, and two men claiming £60,000 and £35,000 respectively.

Mr Cusack explained to the creditors that he has been examining bank statements of the firm going back two-and-a-half years, and is in the process of obtaining additional statements.

One creditor, who is claiming £60,000 for uncompleted work on his property, explained: “I became concerned about what was happening last year, and I wish I had stopped paying money to Samuel David Construction then. We have been left with an incomplete and uninhabitable house.”

Another creditor, who is seeking £160,000 from the construction firm, said: “This is a very stressful business which is hanging over us all the time. This is money I could use to help my kids in their lives. We have now had to pay to have works done (on our house) by somebody else. The stress of it affects sleep and personal relationships - the whole works.”

The amount being claimed by the creditors has risen by an extra £200,000 - from an initial £1.1m to £1.3m - due to new people stepping forward, and other existing creditors adding to their original claim. “I suspect there will be additional claims on top of what we are already aware of,” said Mr Cusack.

Each claim will rank equally, except for members of staff claiming unpaid salaries and holiday pay, who are ranked as preferential creditors. But no steps have been taken as yet to fully adjudicate all claims.

Samuel David Shutlar, the firm’s director, was requested by Parker Andrews at the beginning of August to hand over account books for his company and has yet to do so, the meeting heard.

In the meantime, Mr Cusack is requesting that anybody who may have been left out of pocket by the collapse of the company to get in contact.

The next meeting of the creditors’ committee will take place on October 25.