HUNDREDS of creditors left out of pocket due to the Haymills collapse are set to receive no payout from the administration process.Much of the Haymills Group is now owned by French industry giants Vinci, including the Stowmarket-based East Anglian arm of the business.

HUNDREDS of creditors left out of pocket due to the Haymills collapse are set to receive no payout from the administration process.

Much of the Haymills Group is now owned by French industry giants Vinci, including the Stowmarket-based East Anglian arm of the business.

Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers has revealed that they have now received claims worth �72 million from unsecured creditors - much more than had been initially reported.

Several firms were owed hundreds of thousands of pounds by the well-established business, which also had operations in London and Gibraltar.

At a creditors' meeting it was agreed that the funds available to unsecured creditors - an estimated �46,000 - should be used to investigate the reason surrounding the failure of the group, rather than repaid to the hundreds of creditors in tiny sums.

Stephen Oldfield, of PwC, said that at the creditors' meeting, there was a general consensus that the collapse should be investigated.

He said: “The mood of the meeting was such that the creditors would rather see the funds available (�46,000) used to fund the administrator and his agents in further reviewing the circumstances leading up to the appointment of the administrator.

“Essentially, the creditors wanted to know what had gone wrong with the company. Whilst recognising the difficulties the group had faced in Gibraltar, they were a number of other issues which the creditors discussed with the administrator which were of concern to them at the meeting which they asked the administrator to look into.”

Mr Oldfield said that a creditors' committee was also set up during the meeting that would be working with PwC in its investigations.

He added: “The creditors' committee are there to help and guide me in looking at the issues that the creditors raised at the meeting as continuing concerns.”

However, one sub-contractor who was left more than �100,000 out of pocket, and faces closing his business after Christmas unless more work can be found, said giving more money to PwC would be a waste of time.

The craftsman, who asked not to be named, said: “They won't find anything - and if they did, they wouldn't do anything about it. I don't agree with it going towards it (an investigation). We might as well put that �46,000 down the toilet, rather than give it to PwC.”

The Star previously revealed that PwC was already been paid more than �175,000 for its work on the administration - a sum Mr Oldfield said he was “completely comfortable with”.