THE firm that built Boscombe’s surf reef but failed to get it working properly is to be struck off the register of companies in its native New Zealand.

Bournemouth council ploughed more than £3million into the reef, which failed to turn the resort into the surfing mecca that had been envisaged.

No one at the town hall was ever publicly held responsible for the decision to spend the money, or to hold back just £150,000 as an incentive for contractor ASR to finish the job.

Liquidators at PwC were unable to contact ASR’s boss Nick Behunin, despite him having a Facebook account showing he is in Venice, California.

“Despite the assistance of the public in providing contact details, we were still unable to contact the director,” they said.

Liquidators found ASR had 36,336 New Zealand dollars (around £20,493) in the bank, plus two cars, a trailer and some office equipment, which were sold to raise 7,575 dollars (£4,272).

The surf reef was built in 2008, after three council officers went on an 18-day visit to New Zealand and Australia to research other reefs there and visit ASR.

The cost of the reef spiralled from an estimated £1.35m to around £3m. It never performed as expected and ASR went out of business without ever getting it to create the kind of waves that were planned.

Tony Williams, the council’s executive environment and economy director at the time, was later promoted to the £125,000-a-year post of chief executive. He was made redundant this year with a pay-off that cost the public £390,000.

Roger Brown, leisure services director, who admitted that commissioning the reef had been a “leap of faith”, later proposed the abolition of his own job as he turned 60 in 2011.

Stephen MacLoughlin, council leader at the time, resigned the leadership in 2010 after pornography was found on his council laptop. He is now Conservative councillor for Queen’s Park.

Peter Charon, the cabinet member for procurement who largely negotiated the ASR contract, later became leader of the council, He was deposed by the Tory group in 2010 and left the council.

Cllr Beverly Dunlop, then cabinet member for economy and tourism, remains a councillor for Moordown and chairs the council’s standards board.

Bournemouth council, which is owed £15,000 by ASR, said in a statement: "The council is aware of the latest situation and it is not intending to pursue the £15,000 owed to us."

It stressed it withheld some money from ASR at the time over the "non-performance" of the reef.