A Brighton building and design company appears to have gone bust leaving customers and contractors out of pocket and with work unfinished.
DMB Solutions, of Borough Street, Brighton, is being liquidated – its assets are being sold to go towards paying its debts.
The DMB Solutions website said: “The company has ceased to trade and the directors of the company have instructed Begbies Traynor to assist them in complying with the formal requirements for placing the company into creditors’ voluntary liquidation.”
Begbies Traynor is experienced at dealing with companies in financial difficulty.
According to DMB’s most recent accounts, for the financial year to the end of March, DMB (Design Manage Build) owed £937,000 to creditors within a year.
The sums owed included £542,000 in VAT, £237,000 to trade creditors and £116,000 in social security and other taxes.
Complaints have been received Brighton and Hove City Council’s Trading Standards Team which is investigating whether DMB was trading unfairly or insolvently.
And trading standards officers are expected to consult Sussex Police as they try to establish whether any criminal offences have been committed.
Regardless, a Facebook page, DMB Solutions Victim Support, was set up about a year ago and now has more than 200 members after a recent rush to join.
Customers have complained about being asked to pay thousands of pounds for work up front as well as work which has been left incomplete.
The directors of DMB are James Powell, 37, Christopher Bibb , 50, and Michelle Allen-Foord, 46, also known as Michelle Bicknell or Michelle Brown.
He used to be my neighbour and treated his tenants appealingly, rotten windows etc.Left them once in January for over 4 weeks with no heating with two small children under a year. I would have never used him for any repairs or anything.