Elderly hit as bus firm fails

More than 100 pensioners from the Market Drayton area have been left thousands of pounds out of pocket by the collapse of a coach company in the town, it was claimed today.

They have lost more than £11,700 after Butters Coaches went into liquidation earlier this month. David Goodwin, 70, said he paid almost £600 for a trip to Llandudno with his partner Veronica Reese.

He added people felt "ripped off" and did not think they would get any money back.

Mr Goodwin, a member of the Market Drayton Senior Citizens' Forum, is now calling on anyone else affected by the collapse of the company to get in touch so they can decide what to do next.

"There are more than 100 people," he said.

"From what I can gather they are all over 60.

"We went to a meeting last week in Stoke-on-Trent with the liquidators and they gave us a list of the people that had filled in the forms to claim back the money.

"As far as we can make out they are all over 60. We have looked through names and addresses and most of them are people we know or know of."

He added: "We need to have a meeting with as many as we can and we have to look at going to employ a solicitor and seeing if we can do anything."

Liquidator Mustafa Abdulali, of Moore Stephens Accountants and Business Advisors, said a creditors' meeting had been held and there was "no likelihood" of the customers who had lost money, some of whom were pensioners, getting it back.

He said there was no buyer for the company.

He said: "And that is the sad thing about it. A lot of the pensioners would have lost money and that is very unfortunate.

"We have a combination of creditors and people who have paid deposits on holidays where unfortunately the holiday can't be fulfiled."

He confirmed about 100 customers had been affected and between them they had lost about £11,000.

Olivia Matthews, 80, from Market Drayton, has lost the £330 she had paid for a holiday to Llandudno.

She said members of Age Concern, the Beacon Friendship Group and the Market Drayton Senior Citizens' Forum had all lost some money.

By Deborah Collins