Amvoc, the Harrogate-based telemarketing company that collapsed two years ago with the loss of hundreds of jobs, is to be dissolved, paperwork filed by the administrators reveals.

The development comes after the conclusion of an investigation into transactions on a loan account which administrators said required “further explanation”.

The company’s collapse into administration in March 2023 came as a shock to its 450 employees, who were told in a 10pm email from CEO Damian Brockway that all the company’s offices, in Harrogate, Leeds and Manchester, would close immediately, citing “covid debts” as the cause.

Digging into the company’s books, administrators Gareth Lewis and Matthew Russell, of Lewis Business Recovery and Insolvency, found that the company owed more than £546,000 to preferential creditors against assets of just over £300,000.

That included wage arrears, holiday pay and pension contribution arrears.

The company also owed £1.2 million to HMRC, which was classed as a “second preferential creditor”, and had £868,267 worth of unsecured creditors.

The administrators later found that an overdrawn director’s loan account (ODLA) for Mr Brockway had an outstanding balance of £11,604.

Mr Brockway disputed the sum and said it was made up of “wrongly allocated cash incentives that were withdrawn from the company's bank account to distribute to employees during the covid pandemic”.

Outstanding invoices

The administrators also discovered that a connected company, Home Security Trials Ltd (HST), was incorporated to do work for one of Amvoc's clients, as the client was allegedly deemed to be “high-risk and litigious”.

HST, whose only shareholder was Mr Brockway, had no other business and only served this one client.

The work required of HST was actually completed by employees of Amvoc, which invoiced HST for it.

There were two outstanding invoices for this work, which totalled £316,000, and a credit note of £144,000, which led to a balance of £172,000 being owed by HST to Amvoc.

The administrators hired Clarion Solicitors, who wrote to advise Mr Brockway that the two balances – £172,000 to HST and £11,604 in respect of the ODLA – were both due and owing, but no response was received from Mr Brockway.

Since HST had been dissolved in September 2023, the administrators decided to concentrate on recouping the ODLA money.

Statutory demand

Clarion then issued a statutory demand to Mr Brockway, who replied giving reasons why he thought it should be withdrawn.

Under advice from Clarion, the administrators withdrew the demand, as chasing this sum would “not be beneficial to the Administration estate”.

Clarion then advised the administrators that no further action should be taken, as the costs of doing so would far outweigh any money that could be clawed back.

As a result, the investigation into the missing monies was concluded, and the company will be dissolved. 

Mr Brockway set up Amvoc, the trading name of A Marketing Vocation Ltd, from a small office in Dacre in 2010. It grew rapidly, moving first to Pateley Bridge and then to large offices at New York Mills near Summerbridge.

It opened a new head office on Cardale Park in Harrogate in 2015, a facility in Leeds in 2018 and an office in Manchester in 2022. It also had plans to expand to London.

Amvoc’s clients included BP, Barclays, Virgin Media, Leeds Beckett University, and both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.