THE TRUE victims of the failure of the trading company behind Falmouth's arts centre have been revealed as the dedicated employees, who have been left more than £40,000 out of pocket.

Poly Trading Ltd went into voluntary liquidation in January and the creditors' report released to the West Briton this week shows it ceased trading with a total loss of £375,617.

Among the biggest creditors are the 16 former staff, who are owed £44,438 between them.

Another victim is Carrick Leisure (CLL), the trust that manages the Princess Pavilion. That is out of pocket by £20,023.

This, says managing director for CLL Alan Horne, is a substantial amount of money for them. It relates to tickets sold through the Poly for events at the pavilion.

Mr Horne said: "We worked very closely with the Poly for the last seven years and we never had a problem with them. It is just unfortunate we have become a casualty.

"This will affect our bottom line as we are a charitable organisation and run our budgets to break even not to make a profit."

The report states there are "insufficient assets" to pay unsecured creditors, including Carrick Leisure and much of that claimed by employees.

Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society (RCPS), which owns the building and gave the trading arm start-up loans in 2006, is owed £286,000.

Dr Alan Stanhope, a director of Poly Trading, told the creditors' meeting that the company's revenue dropped significantly over the latter part of last year. He blamed much of it on the new cinema in town.

A spokesman for the Cornwall Film Festival said: "This level of loss is astounding and one questions how it was allowed to happen."

Some of the creditors are:

R Booth Print, Penryn £2,220; Twentieth Century Fox £219; Universal Pictures International UK £970; Warner Brothers Entertainment UK Ltd, £1,403; Near-Ta Theatre Company £793; HM Customs and Revenue £9,848; Dr Alan Stanhope, £500; Alan Boyd (director of Poly Trading) £500.