Training firm 'will pay off a tenth' of its £1m debts

A training organisation which collapsed, owing £1 million, is likely to pay back only a tenth of its debts, it has been revealed.

Those who are owed money by Stride, in Leicester city centre, include landlords, businesses, a charity and the Government.

Liquidator Neil Money, of insolvency practitioner CBA, said the only assets the business had were contracts totalling £90,000 from Government training agencies which were yet to be paid.

He is investigating what led the company to build up the debts. He said it had been struggling for "some considerable time" before the collapse.

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"There will be a very low nominal payout to creditors, if anything at all," he said. "I don't yet know if it's got any money to pay anyone."

Stride went under three weeks ago after Revenue and Customs officials launched a legal bid to retrieve £200,000 in unpaid taxes.

As a result, the Royal Bank of Scotland froze its account, leaving directors with no choice but to cease operations.

Stride taught budding bricklayers, car mechanics, beauticians and caterers. Some 85 apprentices and 33 staff at the group were made redundant. Another 200 students saw their training courses come to an abrupt end.

As well as the £200,000 owed to Revenue and Customs, £250,000 was owed to landlords, £130,000 to staff in redundancy payments and wages, £100,000 to a charitable fund and £75,000 to Royal Bank of Scotland. The wages and redundancy payments will be paid by the Government, which then becomes a creditor.

Of the debt to landlords, £180,000 was to Leicester Social Economy Consortium, a sister business which owns property, including many of Stride's former buildings in and around Belgrave Gate.

The remaining debts were to businesses which had supplied goods and services.

Stride was set up in 2000 by city homelessness charity Sharp, which is unaffected by the closure.

Craig Mitchell, landlord of the former Stride vehicle maintenance centre in Belgrave Gate, said: "I am very disappointed by the way in which the whole business has failed, particularly as it is a charity-owned company."

Former staff have set up a company to help those left in the lurch by the closure.

Stride's former chief executive, David Brazier, could not be contacted yesterday.

Speaking last month, he blamed both a drop in Government funding and the difficult economic climate for Stride's collapse.