A business owner who was subcontracted to carry out work on a Paragon Interiors project claims he has had to take out an overdraft in order to keep his company afloat.
The stricken Nottingham firm, run by Notts County chairman Alan Hardy, was heading up a fit out of offices at the University of Warwick at the end of 2018, with a total of six organisations being tasked to carry out the work.
Among those organisations was Carlton-based Office Partitions (Middleton) Ltd, which was brought in to carry out work by main contractors, CIM Associates Facilities and Cleaning Ltd.
Office Partition's managing director, Mark Bott, said the work at Senate House, Coventry, was completed but he is still owed almost £24,000 by CIM, which claims it has also not been paid by Paragon.
He said: "You thought you were safe with Paragon.
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"I am certainly not the only one out there. There are quite a few in the industry that are owed money, too.
"£24,000 to me is a lot of money. I have now managed to get an overdraft from the bank to get over that loss. The bank have helped me out and I have got to admit if they hadn't I would have had to fold myself. It's as simple as that."
Mr Bott, who employs a team of four people, added: "I am angry."
The work is understood to have taken about three months and was completed in December last year. The total amount still owed to Mr Bott is £23,750.33.
The main contractor, CIM Associates Facilities and Cleaning Ltd, is based in Loughborough and it subcontracted work to five other organisations or individuals, including Mr Bott's firm.
CIM's owner, Ian Meredith, confirmed the company had been brought in by Paragon for the project and they did subcontract work out.
Mr Meredith claims a first agreed payment was made by Paragon Interiors but that nothing was made after this. The work was all eventually completed.
Mr Meredith said he has now had to pay out £30,000 of his own money to those groups that worked on the project but that the facilities arm of CIM has not operated since December. He says the company is still owed £84,000.
He said: "We are upset about it.
"If I can't pay it out of the business, we do it out of our own pockets. We funded that project. We bankrolled it.
"We have been hammered. Some of it has been through naivety because we are a small company and they are the big guys, but we have learnt our lesson. (Now) we just don't know what to do."
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Paragon Interiors, based at Nottingham Business Park near Strelley, went into administration at the end of February and business recovery group Leonard Curtis was brought in to find a buyer.
A deal was thought to be close to take the firm on but this fell through on March 12 and all staff were made redundant. The administrators were in discussion with other parties around a potential sale but this has so far not come to fruition.
Nottinghamshire Live has approached Leonard Curtis for a comment but they have not responded. The University of Warwick was also contacted but a spokesman said it was a matter for Paragon and Leonard Curtis.
Paragon founder Alan Hardy, also chairman of Notts County, contacted former employees this week informing them he had been approached to set up a new venture.
He has offered employment should the opportunity move forward and told Nottinghamshire Live he has had a positive response so far.
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