The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has declared as failed ISA manager Haich & Associates (FRN 791582) as in default after the first claim against the firm was upheld.

The move means the FSCS will now accept valid claims, with potential compensation for ex-clients of up to £85,000 per claim.

The cost of the compensation will be mostly picked up by the FSCS as the firm has been deemed unable to meet the potential bill.

So far the firm has 50 claims against it for investment advice, with 3 rejected and 46 in progress.

In April last year the FSCS placed Herefordshire-based Haich & Associates under investigation after a string of potential claims materialised.

The FSCS is investigating the company’s role in arranging customers’ investments.

The compensation body said it had received many claims about investments offered by the firm, including bonds investing in delivery company BoxVn Ltd and Australian miner NQ Minerals plc. 

Haich & Associates was based in the Herefordshire town of Kington, near Hereford, according to the FCA register. It lost its FCA authorisation in May 2022 when its executive director was Andrew Graham Moorhouse.

According to Companies House, the firm was incorporated in March 2010 and dissolved in May 2022.

Its last published accounts showed it had four employees as at 6 April 2021 with net assets of £35,313.

It previously operated under the name 14 Lights Ltd between 2010 and 2016 and was known as NPD International Ltd between March 2016 and March 2017.

BoxVn was a Brighton-based freight services company, previously known as Box Nationwide Logistics Ltd, which went into administration on 17 January 2023.

NQ Minerals plc was an Australian mining company which went into administration in January 2022.