THOUSANDS of customers of a Yorkshire law firm that went into liquidation are being assured that their wills and deeds are safe.

The Press reported late last year that Richardson & Co – which had offices in Peckitt Street after taking over well-established York law firm Gildeners in 2010 – had closed suddenly.

Senior partner Danny Richardson said arrangements had been made with the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority since April for an orderly closure.

He said another firm had agreed to look after all Richardson’s archived legal documents and would be contacting its clients to ask if they wanted it to continue storing the documents, or would like it to hand them back.

His comments came after a reader contacted the newspaper to raise concerns about the fate of family wills for her late husband and her mother-in-law, which had been drawn up by Gildeners long before it was taken over by Richardson.

Now Coles Solicitors has revealed that Richardson went into liquidation on December 20, and Philip Booth of PR Booth, had been appointed as liquidator.

Coles managing director Peter Gibson said in a letter to former Richardson clients that by arrangement with the liquidator, Coles had taken possession of wills and deeds stored by Richardson to ensure the security of the documents.

“We will continue to store these for you free of charge, held to your order,” he said. “You do not need to do anything.”

He stressed Coles was not a successor firm to Richardsons and if people had any queries over ongoing work, they should contact the liquidator.

Mr Gibson told The Press that the firm was sending out more than 7,000 letters so it would take some weeks for this to be completed, and he would therefore encourage people to be patient. “We anticipate having all the letters out by the end of March,” he said.