More than 40 vehicles belonging to Wrekin Construction were put up for sale today by the administrators of the collapsed Shifnal-based company.

Ian Best and Tom Lukic, joint administrators with Ernst and Young, have ordered the sale of five cars, 15 vans and 22 Ford Transits belonging to the group which was put into administration last week.

The vehicles, which have a combined book price of about £130,000, are being sold in an online auction on March 25 through website www.bidspotters.com and will be available to view at Wrekin’s Lamledge Lane offices in Shifnal from 9.30am until 4.30pm on the same day.

They include a Ford Galaxy people carrier, a Ford Focus, a Ford Mondeo, a VW Golf and a Land Rover Freelander estate. Bidding closes at 3pm on March 27.

The vehicles are believed to be the first assets to be sold off as the administrators continue their investigations into the Wrekin Group, bought by David Unwin through his Tamar Group company in 2007.

A ruby, said to be the Gem of Tanzania, which was owned by the Tamar Group and exchanged for £11 million of preference shares in Wrekin in December 2007, has still not been received by the administrators.

Mr Unwin, in a statement yesterday, confirmed “the gem was on its way back to the administrators” but a spokesman for Ernst and Young said the ruby was not yet in its possession.

Meanwhile about 20 of the firm’s 430 workers have been taken on by Lancashire-based highways maintenance company Enterprise on projects in Staffordshire.