A COMPANY training young people to drive light and heavy goods vehicles is no longer trading – less than two months after its assets were transferred from a venture that also hit the buffers.

Tees Valley Driver Training, based in Newcomen Road on Middlesbrough’s Skippers Lane Industrial Estate, was created from the ashes of Cleveland LGV Transport which closed in January with the loss of 25 jobs.

Cleveland LGV Transport was set up by former SSI Redcar steel plant sub-contractor Dan Wilcox, who transferred across to the new company, which also had another director Debra Kim Ann Wilcox on its books.

The training side had contracts with local councils and the North East Ambulance Service, among others.

The Northern Echo understands Tees Valley Driver Training suddenly ceased trading towards the end of last month, having previously stressed it was “business as usual”.

Some clients of the firm appear to have been warned the business was about to fold, but others said they were left in the dark.

One woman who said her daughter had paid more than £700 for a driving test organised by Tees Valley Driver Training said repeated calls and e-mails weren’t being answered, while there was also no sign of life at the company’s premises when customers called in person.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: “We are going to try and claw the money back from the bank.

“It’s all over Facebook and I just want to get the message out there to people that this company has gone under.”

In 2016 Cleveland LGV Transport received a high-profile visit from the then Business Minister Anna Soubry with the Government keen to highlight local ventures which had set up successfully with public funding in the light of the Redcar plant’s demise.

Meanwhile, it emerged last year that Cleveland police were investigating an allegation of theft at the firm thought to involve a former employee and the misappropriation of company funds.

The investigation has been described by officers as complex and is likely to take several months to complete.

The Echo was unable to speak to anyone directly connected with Tees Valley Driver Training to establish what financial difficulties had been faced, and also what advice had been issued to those affected by the closure.