A NIGHTCLUB which promised to bring the VIP experience to Swindon has shut for good, owing tens of thousands of pounds to local companies.

Tiger Bills closed just three months after launching in October, but the management said the venue would re-open in the festive season.

The Old Town club was still shut this week, with huge tyres placed outside the entrances, and the Adver understands it will not be re-opening.

The management had ordered refrigeration and air conditioning units, along with furniture and upholstery, which included bar stools, tables and chairs.

They had arranged to purchase the goods, some of which also involved labour costs, within different time scales after delivery.

Peter Yeardley, of Arctic Services, still has to be paid for a cooling unit which he claims is now missing from the building.

His company was paid 50 per cent of the £3,000 bill upfront and was told the remainder would be paid within 30 days.

Mr Yeardley said: “If we could have gone in and retrieved the cooling system it wouldn’t have been such a problem, but it has been removed from the building and the management seem to have disappeared.

“We are waiting for formal information about the company and then we will contact our solicitors. “We are not as badly off as some of the other companies as we agreed a 50 per cent deposit up front.”

Mr Yeardley said some traders had acted in good faith to do business with another local company.

The club is understood to owe more than £20,000 overall. Dan Field, the general manager of Tiger Bills, did not respond to a request for comment.

Even before opening, the club was involved in a row with a restaurant chain already using the same name. After its launch, it was threatened with legal action by Swindon Council over wooden panels around its smoking terrace, which have since been replaced with glass panels.

The following month, a clubber spent three hours in intensive care after falling eight feet from a railing in the venue.

The victim said Tiger Bills was not to blame and it had just been an accident.

Later in September, seven men were arrested following a disturbance outside the club after it reached capacity and door staff refused to allow anyone else entry.

At the end of the month a drunken reveller headbutted a police officer after being ejected from the club and his girlfriend made a complaint to police that she had been assaulted by a bouncer.

The club said it had dealt with the incident correctly and professionally. Tiger Bills launched on August 31, promising “sharp service and only a premium range of drinks surpassed by a music experience not heard for at least a decade.”

It offered a range of VIP packages, including one combining a private booth, a designated waiter and cocktails, spirits and champagne for £500.