Companies from one of Jersey’s oldest construction groups have been ordered to pay a total of more than half-a-million pounds in compensation to employees who lost their jobs when the business collapsed last summer.

The Style Group – including Style Windows, Style Homes, Style Interiors and long-standing construction firm AC Mauger – confirmed that it had ceased trading and intended to enter winding-up procedures on 14 August.

In a letter sent to staff and seen by Express, the company said “the challenges facing the business have made it impossible to continue”.

It continued: “In order to protect all parties’ interests we have needed to place all payments on hold, and that unfortunately includes salaries and wages.”

Staff were asked to return all company property “with immediate effect”.

Among those to lose their jobs when the group abruptly ceased trading that day was David Sutcliffe, who had worked for Style Windows as a Commercial Estimator Operations Director for 36 years.

He submitted a claim against his former employer for unfair dismissal, lack of notice and holiday pay, and unpaid wages in November.

The case was heard by the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal on Tuesday, which ordered that Style Windows pay Mr Sutcliffe £41,500 for unfair dismissal and damages totalling more than £20,000 for his other claims.

On the same day, the tribunal also handed down judgment in the cases of Austin Reid, William Johnston, David Buxton and Wayne Martin.

Mr Reid, who worked for Style Windows for 22 years as a Commercial Supervisor, was awarded a total of £61,593.

Mr Johnston worked for the company as a Commercial Contracts Manager for just under four years and was awarded £55,305 –including compensation of £4,347 for paternity rights.

Mr Buxton, who worked for Style Windows Limited as a Service Engineer Surveyor for 26 years, was awarded £51,092.

And Mr Martin, who worked for Style Shopfitting as a Quantity Surveyor for 15 years, was awarded £61,085 by the tribunal.

All of the claims were undefended by Style Group, so tribunal chair Dr Elena Moran handed down each judgment in default.

It brings the total owed to former staff members of the collapsed construction group to £545,682.

Last year, accounts administrators Rosemary Hull and Judith Renouf were awarded £71,769 and £35,896 respectively, and director surveyor Stephen Romeril – who had worked for AC Mauger for over 49 years – was awarded a total of £145,141.

Those owed money by Style Group were invited to attend a creditors’ meeting last year, which set out the failed group’s financial position and asked creditors present to choose liquidators to wind it up.

Aidan Tucker and Louis Gerber of Leonard Curtis Jersey Limited were nominated by the Style Group.

The Viscount’s Department issued a “notice of distraint” on “all movable assets” of AC Mauger, the construction firm of the Style Group, which will involve a sale of those assets.

A notice of distraint is a formal warning from a creditor to a debtor that their assets will be seized and potentially sold to recover unpaid debts, such as taxes and social security contributions.