Two couples have been financially ruined after falling victim to a pub management training scam involving a Bradford-based company.

Scores of would-be publicans claim to have been left out of pocket by Inn Direct Limited, which was wound up in the public interest last month after an investigation by the Companies Investigation Branch of the Insolvency Service.

The company - which had its registered office and trading address at the Peel Park Hotel in Otley Road, Bradford - persuaded hopeful landlords to pay £5,000 for services, including training and guaranteed placements from a selection of 1,000 pubs.

But the CIB investigation found Inn Direct Ltd misled its clients because it could not guarantee a pub of choice as it was only able to find placements at a limited number of licensed premises linked to an associated company.

Investigators also found the company failed to keep adequate records, making it impossible to establish the full extent and nature of its income and expenditure or determine if it had placed all its clients in public houses as promised.

Pub trade bosses are now warning people to be wary and urging them not to part with money up front.

Angela Brook, 46, and her husband Russell, 45, have been left homeless and in debt after responding to an Inn Direct newspaper advert.

They met Eddie McGhee, a director of Inn Direct, and agreed to pay £2,000 for two weeks' training at a Staffordshire pub in September 2004.

Two months later, after turning down the chance to manage a pub in Bradford they described as a "dump," they paid a £3,000 bond to take over the running of the Black Horse at Hellifield, near Skipton, which was being refurbished.

Mother-of-three Angela, of Hull, said: "The pub was derelict and we had workmen living on site, but we wouldn't see them for weeks.

"We were told there would be restaurants, a function room and seven en-suite bedrooms. They said everything would be up and running by the following February, but it never materialised."

The couple were being paid 13 per cent of the takings, around £130 a week, and by last summer were struggling to keep up mortgage payments on their Hull home, so Mr Brook returned there to work as a lorry driver, leaving his wife to run the pub. In October they were issued with a notice to quit after Angela was taken to hospital with appendicitis.

The Brooks were moved to the Worth Valley Inn, Keighley, but in December were forced to sell their £145,000 home for £123,000 because they could not afford the mortgage and had run up £12,000 on credit cards.

They stayed at the Worth Valley for eight months but were told it was being closed because trade was so low. They were offered another pub but refused it.

"We are now in deep financial trouble. They refused to give us our money back and I have been told there is no prospect of getting it because the company has been wound up. We have lost everything."

Lawrence and Catherine Anthony are selling their home in Selby, North Yorkshire, and moving into rented accommodation after losing their redundancy money to Inn Direct.

"We met a man from Inn Direct who said if we invested in the business they would put us through our courses and after two weeks training we would get our own pub of our choice. We paid £5,000," said Lawrence, 39.

Mr Anthony went for two weeks' training at a Bradford pub but said the man doing the training made him feel awkward and unwelcome and on the fourth day he was wrongly accused of stealing lager.

"I walked out and got back in touch with Inn Direct, but they said they believed the man at the pub and didn't want my sort of person working for them.

"When I tried to contact Inn Direct again the line was dead and then we found out it had been wound up. We used our redundancy money to change our lives. Now we are selling our house because of what these people have done."

Tony Payne, West Yorkshire-based chief executive of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Association, said a lot of people had been stung'.

"We have had lots of complaints. The trade is losing potentially good publicans because of this."

"My advice is never to pay an up-front fee. You have to do checks on the company."

A spokesman for the Insolvency Service confirmed: "Eddie McGhee was a director of Inn Direct, which is now in compulsory liquidation. As a matter of course, the Official Receiver will have a look into the conduct of the directors in the three years leading up to the company's insolvency, to look at whether there was any misconduct. If misconduct is found in such cases a director can be disqualified for between two and 15 years."

Mr McGhee was not available for comment.