The entrepreneur behind the purchase of the Wrekin ruby for £8,000 believes the gemstone could eventually be worth up to £2 million.

Tim Watts owns Pertemps, a group of recruitment companies which includes Telford-based Network Group, a major creditor of Wrekin Construction when it went into administration last March. Yesterday it was announced that Pertemps had bought the cricket ball-sized gemstone for £8,010 from Wrekin’s administrators Ernst & Young.

The company is attempting to claw back some of the £40 million owed to about 1,000 creditors.

The gemstone was found among the assets of the Shifnal company and had been exchanged for about £11 million of shares when it was bought by businessman David Unwin’s Tamar Group. It had previously been valued in Tamar’s accounts for £300,000.

Network Group said the ruby had been placed in the Birmingham Deposit Centre for safe-keeping and would be kept off the balance sheet.

But Mr Watts said he planned in the future to “smash it up” into smaller jewels.

“We expect to sell it at a very substantial profit, there are at least 20 significant smaller rubies on its surface,” he added.

Ernst & Young invited bids for the gemstone and at the close of bidding Network Group secured the gem for £8,010. Network Group said it had opted to purchase the gemstone to compensate it for the losses it incurred when Wrekin went into administration.

Jon Smith, group operations director for Network Group Holdings, said: “It is certainly one of the most unusual cases I have ever come across in my career.”

More than 500 people lost their jobs when the Lamledge Lane-based company went bust 11 months ago. Workers were awarded £1.9 million from the Redundancy Payment Service.

By Business Editor Amy Bould