A gran fears she may have lost £1,450 after a furniture shop shut down.

Catherine Gilbert, 63, paid cash for items from Home Suite Home in Market Street, Huddersfield, last October.

Mum-of-two Mrs Gilbert, of Dalton, bought the marble-topped dining table and four chairs, a large mirror and two picture mirrors and paid in full.

As she was having an extension built she asked the owner, who she knew only as ‘Cathy’, to save the items until she was ready for them to be delivered.

Delays to the extension work meant Mrs Gilbert returned several times to check that it was still all right for the shop to store her items. She even offered to pay for storage.

Mrs Gilbert spoke to Cathy on the phone in June and was told she was moving her business to the former Strawberry Fair premises in Westgate, Huddersfield.

Last month when Mrs Gilbert called at the Market Street shop she found it closed.

The premises have since been cleared out and are up for let.

Mrs Gilbert, who has two sons Jason, 42, and Darren, 41, and 10 grandchildren, said she feared she was going to lose her money.

“I paid in full but asked if she could store the items because my extension wasn’t ready, and she said it was no problem,” said Mrs Gilbert.

“I kept checking that it was OK. If there had been a problem I could have had them delivered to my son Jason’s.”

The shop’s landline number appears to have been disconnected and a mobile number on a business card given to Mrs Gilbert immediately goes to voicemail.

The woman’s voice says: “Hi, it’s Cathy. Sorry there’s no-one here to take your call. Maybe if you leave a short message after the tone I will get back to you.”

The business card stated that Home Suite Home was a trading name for Concept Furnishing Ltd, based at 21 Byram Street, Huddersfield.

According to the Companies House website that company was dissolved on May 18, 2010.

Another companies check website, Duedil, lists the founding director as Catherine Conheeney.

Companies House also has a record for Home Suite Home (Huddersfield) Ltd, based at the shop’s address in Market Street.

That company was dissolved on June 4 this year.

Duedil lists the director of that company when it closed as Catherine Melia.

Concept Furnishing Ltd has no connection to any other firm of a similar name.

The Examiner left several messages on the mobile phone voicemail but no calls were returned.

Inquiries at the former Strawberry Fair premises at the top of the Byram Arcade found other unrelated shops had moved in.

Mrs Gilbert has reported what happened to the police and West Yorkshire Trading Standards.

A spokesman for Trading Standards could find no trace of other complaints about Home Suite Home.

He said that if the company which took Mrs Gilbert’s money had gone bust it was unlikely she would get a refund.

He advised customers to pay by credit card as, if anything goes wrong, the credit card company is jointly liable.