GAMBLING authorities are believed to be probing a North East sports betting firm that collapsed owing investors £1.6m.

Seahouses-based Centaur Corporate Holdings and it’s subsidiaries called in liquidators a fortnight ago, leaving some people tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Now angry creditors have called on fraud authorities to get to the bottom of where their money went and if it was legal.

A spokesman for the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said they had received inquiries about the collapse of Centaur but, after finding the firm was not covered by their regulations, were directing people to the Gambling Commission.

The Gambling Commission refused to comment on an individual case but said it had a range of sanctions, including heavy fines, if wrongdoing had taken place.

“Licence holders have legal obligations to their customers,” she said. “And there is a requirement on each operator’s licence to explain to customers whether, and if so how, they protect customers’ funds in the event of insolvency.”

The Serious Fraud Office also said they couldn’t comment on individual cases.

Centaur Global worked like a hedge fund with investors putting in money for analysts to try and make a return on, except instead of shares the company was betting on correctly predicting the results of sporting events.

Those analysts included, the company claimed, former staff from bookmakers such as William Hill, as well as former Republic of Ireland football star and Times columnist Tony Cascarino.