Worcester Warriors Supporters Trust claim Atlas not investigated before buying club

It is now more than a year since Worcester's men's team last played at Sixways

Worcester Warriors fans have written an official complaint, claiming prospective owners Atlas were not investigated before buying the club.

Warriors Supporters Trust has made a complaint to ombudsman The Insolvency Service, as a "last resort" after trying to communicate their concerns to the administrators, Begbies Traynor.

The troubled ex-Premiership club went into administration a year ago.

They now have Wasps owner Chris Holland as majority shareholder.

Begbies Traynor say they are satisfied they have complied with their duties since first being appointed in late September 2022.

In a statement to BBC Hereford & Worcester, they said: "If a complaint has been submitted, then we will respond to our regulator accordingly.

"Please note that we are fully satisfied that we have complied with our statutory duties under the Insolvency Act 1986 and in our position as officers of the court."

"Basically because of the lack of engagement we have taken it to a higher power, I suppose," said Warriors Supporters Trust spokesman Marcus Mulcahy.

"If they had answered our questions and said 'no, no, no this is what we have done, this was all by the book, this was Atlas' funding, it was all sort of proven' we wouldn't go ahead and complain but they haven't said anything at all."

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Atlas was jointly run by former Warriors chief executive Jim O'Toole and ex-London Irish player James Sandford.

They were initially reported to have had one major rival to take over at Sixways, led by former Warriors director of rugby Steve Diamond and the club's former main sponsor Adam Hewitt.

But O'Toole and Sandford were chosen by Begbies Traynor as preferred bidders and were appointed in February, before it was reported that they had completed the £2.05m deal to buy the club in May.

It was then revealed Atlas still required to pay a further £1.18m by 9 October and were yet to complete their purchase of the club's Sixways stadium and the surrounding land.

In May, Holland's firm Loxwood Holdings made a loan to Atlas to help secure a lease for Championship rugby to be played at Sixways.

However, Atlas failed to repay that money by the deadline of 25 May - and it was then announced on 18 September that, having failed to repay that money, Holland's company had taken a controlling share of Warriors.

O'Toole declined to comment.

Worcester Warriors were expelled from the Premiership in October 2022

Warriors, along with Midlands rivals Wasps, were expelled from the Premiership last season after going into administration because of their financial problems.

Both sides were given opportunities by the Rugby Football Union to play at second-tier level in the Championship this season, if they got their financial affairs straight in time.

But, if and when either club reapplies to join the RFU pyramid, they have been told that they will have to do so at the bottom rung.

The artificial pitch at Sixways is still being used by the separately administered Warriors Women, whose season in the rebranded Premiership Women's Rugby starts on 18 November, and local ninth-tier non-league football side Worcester Raiders.