CUSTOMERS who had vouchers totalling almost £14,000 for a popular Poole restaurant are among the creditors who will lose out after the business was liquidated.

Isabel's in Station Road, Ashley Cross, never reopened after the first Covid lockdown and was placed into voluntary liquidation in January 2021.

Its name, internet domain name, phone number and social media accounts were sold to another business, Isabel’s Brasserie Limited, set up at Penn Hill by a former Isabels employee.

As previously reported, the director of Isabel's Limited had estimated that its liabilities outstripped its assets by more than £355,379.

Creditors included the holders of 185 customer vouchers totalling £13,622, while HMRC was owed £25,389.

“We have dealt with a number of queries from consumer creditors in respect of vouchers previously purchased,” wrote liquidators Carl Faulds and Michael Fortune of Portland Business and Financial Solutions.

“Where possible we have assisted them in contacting their card provider to establish if a refund is possible. Alternatively, we have advised them that no dividend is available to unsecured creditors.”

Staff owed money were helped to make claims to the Redundancy Payments Office, although some were owed sums above its limits.

“There are no funds available to pay a dividend to unsecured creditors as the realisations have not been sufficient to cover all the expenses of the liquidation,” the liquidators’ notice of final account said.

The company had a loan of more than £200,000 from Barclays, secured against the long lease on its property. It had a £50,000 bounce back loan from the same bank.

The liquidators said the lease had been sold to the business’s director, Damian Williams, who had paid the bank £230,000 following negotiations. The freehold is owned by another company of Mr Williams’s, My Cornish Properties Limited.

Mr Williams and a former member of staff had both expressed in buying the business’s goodwill, but the director later decided he was not interested.

“A former employee, who had established a new company, Isabel’s Brasserie Limited, sought to acquire the goodwill, including trading name, intellectual property, domain name, telephone number and social media accounts and submitted an initial offer of £565,” the report said.

“This was rejected as it was considered to be far too low. After further discussions, an increase offer of £2,000 plus VAT was accepted.”

The liquidators said they had invited creditors to draw attention to any matters requiring further investigation but none had come forward.

They had investigated the company’s affairs to see if there could be any cost-effective recovery of money for creditors but had found there were “no matters of concern that merit pursuing”.