L&G AR Carrington Carr enters administration

The AR firm has appointed Chris Farrington and Matthew Cowlishaw, partners at Deloitte as administrators of the Leicester-based company.

The firm completed in excess of £950m of mortgage business between 2008 and 2010 and employed around 260 people. During that time it was an appointed representative of Legal & General.

David Fuher, group chief executive of Carrington Carr said the decision was taken with much regret after trading for 25 years in the life and mortgage market place.

He said: “Unfortunately, the continuing deterioration in the re-mortgage market, coupled with legacy claims in respect of alleged historical PPI mis-selling activities, left the board with no option but to place the company into administration.”

Fuher added that the closure of Carrington Carr had not resulted in any redundancies as all staff had been deployed across Carrington Carr’s other businesses which have remained unaffected and continue to operate on a fully solvent basis.

Stephen Smith, director of housing and public affairs at Legal & General, said: “It’s sad to see one of our appointed representatives go into administration. Over the past several years many firms in the industry have had to close shop however this is the first one in quite awhile that one of our ARs have entered administration that I remember.”

Chris Farrington, joint administrator, said: “In recent months, given the difficult financial climate, Carrington Carr Home finance found it more challenging to provide a positive financial contribution to the Carrington Carr Group of companies.

“Despite substantial financial support over recent years from the group, the board came to the very difficult decision of appointing Deloitte as administrators of Carrington Carr Home Finance, as they could not see the business returning to profitability in the future.”

Fuher added: “Carrington Carr Group continues to go from strength to strength, reflected in the fact that since 2008, we now have doubled the number of employees. The board also continues to invest in improved infrastructure such as new technology and has also identified new ventures to help deliver long term strategic plans. At present, we are completing a substantial investment to modernise our Leicester offices on Welford Road.

“The group board is committed to continuing to support new recruitment and employment opportunities in Leicester, particularly for young people. It will continue to be a purchaser of products from local businesses supporting the local business community and most importantly will continue to provide an excellent service to all of our group customers, whether they be existing customers or future customers.”