INVESTORS in a Bolton property firm - which has collapsed without warning - are facing an anxious wait to see if they have lost thousands of pounds.

Administrators have been appointed at Harewood Associates, based in Chorley New Road, and are already warning that investments, due to pay out on June 1, will not be forthcoming.

Insolvency experts say they have also received a flood of calls over the company's demise and it may take until Friday for an update is ready to release to those affected.

Late last month it was revealed the outfit, run by brothers Peter and David Kiely, had gone from making a £4million profit in 2017 to a £4.3million loss for 2018.

One investor says he "won't be holding his breath" over the recovery of the £11,000 he left with Harewood, which was going to pay for a sunshine holiday.

Shares would be bought in property developments, known as single purpose vehicles, to provide a healthy rate of return.

Administrators say the company had around 1,400 investors and was recently offering rates of return of around eight per cent.

It has emerged though that the fixed period investments, offered by Harewood, were not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

This would not qualify any of the affected investors to payouts from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Begbies Traynor, which has an office in Manchester, has been appointed to handle the company's insolvency.

Paul Stanley, a regional managing partner there, said: "The company ran into financial difficulties and was unable to meet some payments. Consequently, we were appointed as joint administrators.

"We are at the very early stages of assessing the situation. The directors are fully co-operating with the administrators and we will be contacting all creditors to update them on the matter within the next few days, as (we are) obliged (to) under insolvency law.

"At this stage there is no firm information on the viability of the various investments and consequently, it is not possible to comment on the level of losses likely to be suffered by investors.

"Investors will naturally be concerned to know whether their investments are protected if there are deficiencies. It's my understanding that the business was unregulated and therefore any individual investor losses are unlikely to be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme."

His partner, Dean Watson, added: "Due to the volume of enquiries being received in relation to this matter we are unfortunately unable to speak to investors individually as this would prevent us from performing our duties."

The administrators have set up an online portal, for those worried about their investments, and have pledged to contact them in writing by Friday regarding where they might stand.

Birmingham-based businessman Ruksana Kurji had £11,000 invested with Harewood and had been making repeated attempts to discover when he could redeem his outlay.

He told the Bolton News: "We told them recently that we wanted to redeem our investment but I didn't have any correspondence whatsoever from them.

"But in the past few days they had responded, saying that they were having cashflow problems but that they would continue to pay the interest over the next four months.

"I'm waiting to hear back from them but I'm not holding my breath. I know one of my friends who had £70,000 with them."

Earlier this week Peter Kiely, 48, who lives in Lostock, was fined as part of a Health and Safety Executive prosecution involving one of his other firms, Sherwood Homes, based in Stockport.

He was told to pay £6,500 and the company was penalised £170,000 over failures in work to properly remove asbestos at a building project in Northwich.