POLICE investigating a York property investment business have received 60 calls and emails from concerned members of the public.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said that about 40 people had contacted it in the past two days - since The Press reported how investors were worried they might not get back investments of between £6,000 and £58,000 paid to Challenor Property Developments.

The Press reported on Wednesday how Challenor's offices at Regency House, just off the outer ring road at Poppleton, were closed down and deserted, with its number ringing as unobtainable.

A former employee has now contacted the newspaper to claim he is owed about £2,000 in wages and guaranteed commission for his last month's work, although he said he did not realistically expect to get the money back.

Several more investors have also come forward to tell of their fears they have lost large sums of money, including:

* Jo Jacobs, from Hampshire, who said she paid a total of £15,000 to Challenor. She said she got £2,000 back after coming up to York, but the rest had not been refunded.

* A Mr Irwin, from Manchester, who said he gave Challenor £12,500 to become a franchisee before going on a two-day course at a York hotel. "Once I was on the course, it was clear that there were internal problems with the company," he said, adding that he had not been able to get through to the company to ask for a refund.

* Sarah Leach, from Wiltshire, who said she had invested £20,000 plus VAT to operate a Challenor agency in Wiltshire after she had been made redundant.

"After giving it a try I decided that I wanted out and asked for my agency fee to be refunded," she said. "That was at Christmas last year and I heard nothing from Challenor."

She added that she had submitted a claim to the county court to try to recover her money and lodged a complaint with North Yorkshire Police.

The former Challenor employee said he had worked for the firm for almost a year until shortly before its offices shut down. He said that in the early months, the business had successfully helped many people invest in mostly buy-to-let properties but, as the property slump kicked in this year, problems within the business grew, and an increasing number of people demanded refunds on deposits and franchise payments, but were generally failing to get their money back.

"Only people who turned up at the offices and refused to leave until they got paid tended to get their refunds," he said.

He said Challenor worked by buying properties from developers at a discount of perhaps 20 to 25 per cent. The property was then sold on to investors at a lesser discount, with the business keeping the difference. People paid deposits not on the property, but as "holding deposits" to Challenor.

He said he left the firm because he "couldn't justify working there any more" in the light of the growing problems.

"I was extremely unimpressed. We could see that the company should work with good management but clearly wasn't going anywhere."