Creditors of accident management business ARMS have received an interim payment for debts owed, more than two years after the company went into administration.

The payment of 13 pence per pound owed was paid mid-August on agreed claims. In total bodyshops were owed more than £500,000.

A spokesperson for KPMG, the administrators, said: “There will be a further dividend, but the liquidator cannot comment on the size or timing of it at this stage.”

ARMS went bust after losing its solus work provision contract with insurance broker Endsleigh.

The collapse prompted calls within the bodyshop industry for ring-fencing of money paid through intermediaries for repairs. Many repairers also accused ARMS of being naïve in relying on a single contract for survival.

Following the collapse of the accident management business in April 2005, the company’s director Sandra Hunter-Coulson said that ARMS was still owed money by Endsleigh, its sole work provider, from as far back as 1996.

KPMG have pursued this money for more than a year now. A spokesperson told AM: “The matter regarding Endsleigh Insurance is still being actively dealt with by the liquidator. Creditors will be updated as appropriate.”