INVESTORS are still waiting to hear - four years on - what they will receive following the £40m collapse of a property empire based in Bolton and Darwen.

Liquidators of Harewood Associates say they have managed to recover £3m from a web of inter-linked firms controlled by David and Peter Kiely, since the firm crashed in June 2019.

And officials representing Begbies Traynor, the company appointed to oversee the liquidation, were able to recoup £1m from a legal action involving a subsidiary.

Latest Companies House filings also show they have realised £300,000 from various property transactions - and further avenues of legal redress have either been identified or commenced to claw back additional funds.

But joint administrators Dean Watson and Paul Stanley say claims against Harewood are complicated by the sheer volume of investor creditors, which number more than 850, and the total number of claims, topping 1,700.

This can be combined with the complexity offered by the inter-related companies and the number of creditors transferred by a related entity Harewood Venture Capital to the company.

The pair said in their latest filing: "We are continuing to work with senior counsel and our solicitors to formulate a distribution plan which will set out the way in which creditor claims are to be treated for distribution purposes.

"This will be way of an application by the liquidator seeking directions from the court sanctioning the proposed distribution. This will also include the treatment of SPV (special purpose vehicle) creditors."

The administrators say creditors will be advised by letter of the application - and which company their claim may involve.

For several years Harewood Associates offered investors an eight per cent return on property schemes. One previous estimate as part of the administration reported the best they could hope to recoup was 16p in the pound. But further money has been recouped since then.

Days after the Bolton-based outfit ran into difficulties, the two men behind the company, Peter and David Kiely, switched the base of its main debtor to offices in Dalton Court, in Commercial Road, Darwen.

Administrators said their largest debt was to Sherwood Homes, at £19.2m, which was run by the Kielys and owned by Clifton Argyle Ltd, of Dalton Court.

Another £16.7m was owed by Harewood Venture Capital (HVC), also ultimately owned by Clifton Argyle. A third Kielys outfit, Lansdowne Investment Partnership, under Walbury Commercial Ltd, based in Darwen since 2016, owed £2.8m.

Southworth Construction, a further Clifton Argyle offshoot, owed £1m and another Kiely company, Prestige New Homes owed £345,000.

The £1m was recovered through Harewood's shareholding in Equalscale, which owned Geo Noblett Plant Hire.

This firm had transferred a plot of land to Heron Homes, also managed by Clifton Argyle, before attempts were made to disssolve Geo Noblett.

Administrators found out no money had changed hands on that deal and successfully argued Harewood Associates was entitled to at least £1m.