Administrators acting for collapsed North East property company High Street Group have warned creditors to beware of scammers claiming they can aid bids to claw their cash back.
Newcastle-based High Street Grp, the parent company of the High Street Group of companies best known for building the skyscraping Hadrian’s Tower in Newcastle city centre, was placed into administration in December 2021, after a court heard how its debts had grown to more than £200m. Since then, administrators dealing with the collapsed company – which had also been involved in high profile projects including a hotel, office and housing scheme near St James’ Park and a residential scheme on the banks of the Tyne in Gateshead – have said they have identified creditors owed a total of £211m.
Now fresh documents filed at Companies House have highlighted how scammers are targeting loan note holders, saying that an investigator with the Insolvency Service has been drafted in. The progress report, covering the last six months of 2022, says: “Unfortunately there are still numerous scams being targeted against Loan Note Holders. The fraudsters are claiming, for an upfront fee, to be able to pay the Loan Note Holders their funds. This is not true and you should not engage with these people.
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“They have been known to contact Loan Note Holders by email and telephone and appear to be very convincing. Please note they are not in a position to repay your funds and are trying to obtain money from you. As and when we become aware of any scam, we post an update on our IPS Portal.
“As and when a scam is identified, the Insolvency Service is being made aware. The company is not in liquidation and anyone claiming to have been appointed to pay creditors is committing fraud.”
The administrators said they now have access to High Street Grp’s electronic data – amounting to 3.5TB – and that it is being analysed by an independent forensic expert. However, they said it is likely to take some time to sift through all the data.
Meanwhile, it said secured investor creditor accounts amount to a total of £123,602,050, relating to investments in specific construction projects or directly into the company itself. To date, the administrators said they had received claims from 1,648 creditors amounting to £109,494,093.
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Separately, accounting records show unsecured creditors total £87,723,019 and claims have been received from 33 unsecured creditors, amounting to £4,709,087.93.
Following its collapse, the group said its failure had been triggered by the pandemic, when it lost of institutional funding for many of its schemes. Its financial struggles came apparent in 2019 when a subsidiary was put into administration after failing to repay an overseas lender. The company’s accounts were also delayed on a number of occasions and two separate auditors resigned.
In the latest progress report, the administrators warned: “Any dividend will be subject to the recovery of assets and costs. We cannot comment on the quantum or timing of any dividend at this time.”
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