The employees of Abbey Green, now ABR Litho, have been unable to claim for unpaid wages and redundancy because the company remained active, despite all staff being made redundant in February.

However, each of the 19 workers contributed £150 in order to cover the legal costs incurred by the recent appointment of Malcolm Fillmore, senior partner at Atherton Bailey.

Staff were originally employed by Claremont Press, which went into administration last December.

Fillmore said as Abbey Green Repro was now in administration, the former employees would be able to apply for monies owed to them through the government.

However, he added: "I am now left as the administrator, trying to find out what went on. It is quite convoluted. Several names have repeatedly come up on my horizon and I am looking into their involvement.

"I am looking into this very carefully because a number of the names to have been involved seemed to have had a chequered past. We are currently seeking to ascertain the financial position of the company, its assets and liabilities."

Fillmore said there would probably be a report on the situation in the next six to seven weeks. However, at this point he was not able to say if, or when, a creditors' meeting would be called.