A CONSUMER watchdog is investigating claims that customers of a former Lindley clothes shop have lost money.

Second-hand designer boutique Plan B has been reported to West Yorkshire Trading Standards after the store in Lidget Street closed with little warning and owed shoppers money.

After it was first reported in the Examiner, scores of people have got in touch claiming they have also been left out of pocket.

Under an agreement the store would sell other people’s items claiming 35% of the profit and giving the owner 65%.

But the shop, owned by Danielle Fisher, from October 2010 to February 2012, suddenly closed in February without paying back shoppers.

Louise Willis, of Salendine Nook, said: "I took lots of things and I was trusting of her because she had sold a few things previously.

"I didn’t write down exactly what I took, but everything was expensive, including a dress I had paid well over £300 for.

"I kept thinking there was something wrong as she wasn’t answering my calls. She did not pay me enough money at all, I took bags and bags of things."

Avril Carter, of Lindley, said she had been on her way to London when she received a phone call to say a cheque had bounced at the bank. It was quite a few weeks before the shop closed in mid- February.

She said: "I kept it and tried again. It was for about £35 for clothes and shoes I had sent in.

"I didn’t know what to do as I haven’t been able to track down a telephone number for her anywhere.

"I had used her before and she had paid up before."

Rebecca Batley is a member of Facebook group ‘Huddersfield Plan B customers ripped off’, which has 18 members in total.

She said: "The agreement was six weeks turnaround and 60% of the sale price to me.

"I chased this up near Christmas time and it took me a while to get a response, no-one answering calls or Facebook messages and the shop was closed on a few occasions when I came up.

"When I did get a reply on Facebook I came up to the shop a few weeks ago and a lady helped me go through what had sold and what the shop still had.

"She gave me five items back and kept the most expensive, including Vivienne Westwood shoes, a leather jewellery box with dustbag and a Paul Smith top.

"I was told a cheque would be posted to me within a week, which never happened. The value of the goods I had already sold was £164, which meant that 60% was £98.40."

Julia Slater, of Kirkburton, said: "I had several items still with her including a £300 Louis Vuitton handbag that I had bought in Cannes, France.

"When I went in to the shop about three weeks before it closed, I was told the handbag had been taken for investigation by Trading Standards to see if it was fake.

"I knew it wasn’t, anyone could see it wasn’t – I bought it in a Louis Vuitton shop."

"I went in several times after that, maybe three or four including on one occasion, just two days before it closed down.

West Yorkshire Trading Standards spokesman David Lodge said: "Following a number of allegations the business is currently under investigation."

Shop owner Danielle Fisher said she had made every effort to contact the hundreds of customers who had property at the premises.

She said: "We were given four weeks notice to vacate the shop premises so did our upmost to ensure customers had their items returned to them.

"Letters were sent out and emails and texts were sent to everyone."