A company that was fronted by Homes Under the Hammer star Martin Roberts has plunged into administration, with all its staff laid off.

Martin hosts the BBC show, alongside co-hosts including Dion Dublin, and often visits Stoke-on-Trent to film auction buyers flipping cheap properties in the city.

And now Asset Academy, in which BBC Martin and his wife, Kirsty, had shares, has gone under, carrying debts topping £3 million. A string of complaints have emerged from customers claiming they paid cash and heard nothign back have emerged.

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The company held training sessions to help investors succeed, charging customers for seminars or mentoring. According to its website, Martin was an ‘advanced speaker’ who shared his expertise of buying at auction.

The property expert is a familiar face to millions of viewers of BBC One daytime favourite Homes Under the Hammer – which features ordinary people buying homes at auction, then doing them up for a profit.

Martin, 59, appears in online videos promoting Asset Academy on its YouTube channel. In one, he claims: “The great thing about property investing is, with the right training and the right guidance, anyone can do it.