A HEATING engineer from Barrow has described how he almost lost his home after the company he was working for went into liquidation.

Barrow construction firm AB Mitchell Developments shut down suddenly at the end of March, leaving 40 employees out of work and out of pocket with unpaid wages and holiday pay.

The company's contract to maintain and refurbish Barrow Borough Council properties, representing around 90 per cent of Mitchell's income, was due to finish at the end of March although the company had been experiencing cash-flow problems for some months.

Most of the ex-employees can recoup a percentage of any unpaid wages, notice pay and holiday entitlement through the government's Insolvency Service.

Gas and heating engineer Mike Cleasby had only worked for AB Mitchell for three weeks when the company went into liquidation.

The dad-of-three said he was close to losing his home as a result.

"A lot of the lads who worked there are very upset and angry, and believe we were kept in the dark as to what was going on," Mr Cleasby, of Roosebeck, said.

"We all have families to feed and mortgages to pay. I was lucky in that I managed to keep doing some work in my spare time, but if it hadn't been for that I would have lost my home."

Documents obtained by the Evening Mail reveal that when AB Mitchell went into liquidation, the firm owed a total of £195,048 to other firms, including a number of local suppliers such as Ward Group, Nevinsons Carpets, B&D Motors, Barrow and District Car Repairs, Alpha Electrics, Dalton Tool Hire, Furness College, Pickerings Scaffolding, Premier Tiles and Sovereign Chemicals.

In addition, £35,000 was owed to employees, £30,000 in loans and £93,000 in unpaid tax as well as an £80,000 VAT bill.

Liquidators have to then attempt to balance the outstanding debts - totalling £433,048, with any assets or cash held by AB Mitchell.

However, this only comes to £32,800, meaning that once any preferential creditors are paid - the employees - there will be little left to distribute with any others.

The owner of one local supplier who was owed money from AB Mitchell, and who asked not to be named, said the liquidation came as "no surprise".

"It's been on the cards for some time and it's common knowledge they were having cash-flow problems," the supplier said.

"For a number of months leading up to this, we'd been chasing payments and threatening to cut off supply if they didn't pay outstanding invoices."

AB Mitchell was set up in 2005 by Kendal-based builder Andrew Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell and Kerry Thornburrow, both of Bank Foot in Kendal, resigned as directors of AB Mitchell Developments on January 13, 2016, and transferred the company to Jacqueline Webster and David Nichols, from Lancaster.

The Evening Mail has made numerous attempts to contact both Mr Mitchell and Mr Nichols, but they have not responded to our requests for an interview.