An administrator’s report seen by the Enquirer reveals the full extent of the cash black hole at the company which went down in March.

Hundreds of firms are owed money by Lakehouse Contracts which crashed following a turbulent seven months since it was sold last August to a company called Mapps Group Limited.

The ex-owners are rebranded company Sureserve who set aside £2.5m in their latest results to cover possible claims on contracts carried-out by their divested business.

Lakehouse administrator CMB Partners confirmed it is investigating amounts potentially owed by Sureserve.

The report added that a computer virus attack at Sureserve had caused problems earlier this year.

It said:  “Lakehouse Contracts shared the same IT network as Sureserve Holdings Ltd.

“Unfortunately in early January 2019 Sureserve’s IT systems suffered a virus attack with a ransom demand from a third party.

“The effect of the virus attack was the total loss of the company’s accounting systems and all other support service systems throughout January 2019.

“This added to Lakehouse’s problems since the directors could not gain a clear picture of the company’s financial position during this time.”

One subcontrator owed money said: “This just gets murkier and murkier.”