TWO women have been banned from starting up new companies after their Colchester lettings agency went bust, owing tens of thousands of pounds.

An Insolvency Service judgment reveals Nicola Hamblion and Lyndsey Ives spent tenants’ deposits and pocketed rent money, instead of passing it to landlords.

In the most shocking case, a victim was persuaded to hand over £11,282 to Hot Lets, as an advance on a year’s rent.

He was unable to move in, as the company didn’t give the funds to the property’s owner.

Instead, the cash was transferred to an account held by an associated company of Hot Lets.

The man never got his money back as Hot Lets went into liquidation.

One of the landlords owed cash by the company was ex-CID police officer Roger Napier, father of Graham, Essex’s international cricketer.

Mr Napier, of Mile End, Colchester, said he welcomed the Insolvency Service ruling, but believed the two Hot Lets bosses should have been sent to court. He said: “It is good news, but it is a shame about all the people who have lost money.

“I think the women should have been prosecuted, but I didn’t have any luck when I tried to get the police involved.”

Hot Lets, which was based in Church Street, shut down without warning in April 2008.

The judgment on its directors said Mrs Hamblion and Mrs Ives had both failed to ensure the company safeguarded deposits and rent money.

Clients owed cash by the company had entered claims totalling at least £109,637.

The business had three bank accounts, one for its own funds, one for rent money which was destined for landlords, and another for deposits.

The system was designed to ensure customers’ money was kept apart from the company’s own funds, so it would be protected.

But checks showed the company was regularly dipping into the two client accounts.

From January 2006, Hot Lets received payments of £242,649 into the account set up to receive client deposits, and made payments totalling £247,198.

Of the payments made, at most £164,990 comprised deposit refunds – leaving £82,000 unaccounted for.

Landlords were owed £70,828 in rent by the company when it entered liquidation.

Mrs Hamblion paid herself at least £85,821 from the start of 2006 and Mrs Ives, who became a director in April 2007, got at least £53,129 from April 2007.

From July 2007, the client account for rents was overdrawn on ten separate occasions.

Former Essex University student Stephen Carr, who rented a house through Hot Lets, said: “It is blatant misappropriation of funds.

“They were treating other people’s money as their own and spending it on themselves.”

Mrs Hamblion was barred from serving as a company director for 11 years by the Insolvency Service, and Mrs Ives for nine years. Both bans came into effect last month.

The Gazette attempted to contact Mrs Hamblion, 44, about the ruling. At her house, in Croquet Gardens, Wivenhoe, her husband Paul said: “No comment.”

There was no reply at the home of Mrs Ives, 38, in Harts Lane, Ardleigh, a bungalow set in large grounds with a Mercedes car on the drive.