Contractor asked to repay £40k to liquidated firm

A CONTRACTOR who has been asked to given back £40,000 paid to him by troubled developer Stephens and Stephens for work on a luxury residential development in Newlyn has vowed never to work with the company again.

- by OLIVIER VERGNAULT

David Hatton’s firm JLD Plant Hire Ltd in Helston was brought in to work on the Hightide development in Newlyn in late 2023.

Work on the five three-storey homes overlooking Mount's Bay with price tags ranging from £890,000 to £1.19m - is still being carried out by Stephens and Stephens Newlyn Ltd, one of many separate companies run under the umbrella of the Stephens and Stephens Group.

The group is run by Paul and Helen Stephens and Mr Stephens is a director of all the companies within it.

Mr Hatton said he only agreed to carry out the work because he knew the then-site foreman, and a payment plan was agreed to reassure him that he would get what he was owed.

However, Stephens and Stephens Developers Limited went into liquidation last year and Mr Hatton is one of an estimated 120 sole traders and businesses in Cornwall, mainly in the Newquay area, to have received a letter from law firm Isadore Goldman, acting on behalf of the liquidators.

Anyone who received money from any bank account linked to Stephens and Stephens Developers Ltd for work carried out after May 4, 2023, has been asked to pay it back.