The Scotsman, citing leaked correspondence between invoice finance provider Cattles and former Summerhall directors Garry Ward and George Pryde, has reported that the business is being investigated for debts of up to £600,000 relating to invoices allegedly submitted before work was completed, a practice known as pre-invoicing. 

In one letter to Pryde dated 23 December, Cattles regional managing director Richard Waldman, said: "As you are aware, there has been a large element of fraud in the management of the facility with us and with this, it is very likely that you will need to indemnify us for a fair proportion of the above debt."

The article goes on to report that Walden sent a further letter to Pryde six days later that said: "I have spent a lot of time over the last few days going through the Excel report … and this suggests that there is over £600ks worth of WIP (work in progress)/pre-invoicing/fraudulent invoicing and uncollectible debt on the ledger."

However, Waldman told PrintWeek that "some of the comments had been taken out of context" adding that the report was not completely accurate, although he did confirm that the invoice finance provider was "still working on the Summerhall case" but added that "no firm conclusions have been drawn".

Summerhall was bought out of administration by Stewarts on 15 December only to be closed eight days later due to "unforeseen circumstances". 

At the time of writing, Pryde was unavailable for comment but was quoted in The Scotsman as saying that he did not receive the letters as he had already left the company when they were sent. He added that he was working with Cattles to recover any unpaid invoices.

Pryde and Ward resigned as director of Dorset based Blackmores last month. Stuart Morris, group finance director at Blackmores, said the resignation was totally unrelated to the situation up a Summerhall. He added that the two directors remain shareholders but have never had an operational role at the business.