Contractors claimed a total of around £500,000 in unpaid invoices after the collapse of the UK arm of neutral vendor and workforce management company Albany at the beginning of the year. 

Almost a year on from the collapse of the UK company, the company’s joint administrators have told Recruiter that it will be “some months” before the process of going through contractors’ claims can even begin.

Five of Albany’s UK companies entered administration in February after RBS Invoice Finance (RBSIF) withdrew a £3m factoring facility. The companies were Albany Management UK, Albany EMEA, Albany Holdings, Albany Employment Services and Albany Technologies.

Joint administrator, John Alexander, from accountants Carter Backer Winter (CBW), told Recruiter: “We are aware of about 100 contractors claiming roughly £500,000, plus around 20 other creditors (primarily the UK tax authorities) claiming approximately £4.6m.”

He said that the adjudicators were currently focusing on a forensic examination of Albany’s accounts by a team of IT experts, and that contractors’ claims would only be looked at after this had been completed.

When asked how long this examination would take, Alexander replied: “I don’t know, we have only just had full access to the firm’s accounts,” adding, “it will take some months”.

In its report to creditors in September, CBW said it expected some money to be left over for remaining creditors after RBSIF collected the money owed to it. However, the joint administrators added that the exact figure available to be distributed to remaining creditors would be confirmed “in due course”.

An IT contractor, who set up a support group for contractor and agencies affected by the collapse of Albany and split fund Mirasol (where many Albany contractor deposited their earnings), told Recruiter that Albany still owes him for three weeks work which is “less than £10,000”.

He told Recruiter: “Given the amount I have lost, the additional delay is not going to have that much impact. But I am sure that for others that have lost much more, every day matters.”

Recruiter has been unable to contact Albany’s founder Martin Glick, whose current whereabouts are unknown.