KNOWSLEY call centre firm Anthony Donald Evans (ADE) has collapsed just a year after claiming a £500,000 investment was going into the business.

The firm, which traded online at seeus2save.com, had moved into Deacon Park, in Kirkby, towards the end of 2009.

Owner Tony Evans, then aged 26, had ambitious growth plans and had planned to increase his 100-strong workforce to 150 within months.

However, it had just 10 staff when it stopped trading on November 23. About 40 people had been laid off at the end of October.

Mark Getliffe and Diane Hill, partners at Manchester-based accountants CLB Coopers, were appointed joint administrators on November 24.

ADE operated a price comparison website seeus2save.com and an insurance brokers.

However, the company is understood to have been the subject of customer complaints about the insurance companies, as well as receiving adverse publicity on online forums and blogs in relation to its terms and conditions.

Mr Getliffe said: “Doing insurance business via the web imposes a high degree of care and disclosure on both the insurance broker and the insured.

“It is a highly emotional area as we all need motor insurance and we all seem to want the best deal we can get.

“Contracts of insurance require a high level of accurate disclosure which is sometimes missed by people doing business via the web, and the web purchaser not properly reading the terms and conditions before proceeding to the check-out page.

“Anthony Donald Evans Limited set itself an aggressive policy of writing insurance business at a low cost, but with higher charges if the policyholder did not validate the information they needed to after the cover note was issued.

“The complaints we have reviewed so far relate to how it conducted this web-based insurance business, and what the customers thought of the way in which their transaction had been dealt with.

“We are working through matters with the relevant parties.”

Mr Evans had claimed he expected ADE’s turnover to at least double from £5m in 2009, although the most recent accounts for the company, filed in August, were exempt because of its size.

Companies with a turnover of less than £5.6m can, in certain circumstances, be exempt.

The company was founded in 2007 and was originally based at North Mersey Park before it moved to Deacon Park.

Mr Evans said the firm was investing £500,000 in the move to the 10,000 sq ft space at the business park, which was the biggest office letting in Knowsley in 2009..