ONE of Winchester's most popular cafes was liquidated owing an alleged half a million pounds in unpaid tax, the Chronicle can reveal.

Ginger Two wound up earlier this year with debts of £594,000 mostly owed to HM Revenue and Customs, company records show.

Its directors have rebranded the St Thomas Street tea room and continue to trade as a new company called So Winchester.

Jane and Mark Stayman, of Meredun Lane, Hursley, are "adamant" HMRC's debt assessment can be overturned, Ginger Two's liquidator said.

Mrs Stayman, 47, branded the tax claims "absolute rubbish". She said: "This is the most outrageous thing I've heard in my life."

She declined further comment.

The documents from Companies House reveal Ginger Two Ltd also owed commercial partners a combined £14,000.

Furious suppliers claim that the company paid its bills late for years. At least one former partner is considering legal action.

One supplier said: "We have to badger them all the time and then they get quite irritable about it.

"We've had all kinds of excuses, like 'a cheque got lost in the bottom of my handbag'."

When Ginger Two Ltd was liquidated in October, it owed around £289,000 in corporation tax, £275,000 in VAT and £16,000 in PAYE fees, the files show.

The six commercial partners allegedly owed money include Winchester firms Char Teas and Chompers Catering.

Hampshire Chronicle:

The cafe in St Thomas Street now trades as So Winchester

Coffee maker Matthew Algie, accountants Northover Bennett, Maidenhead's Handmake Cake Company and Heavenly Smoothies, from Dorset, are also listed as out of pocket.

"It's a real nightmare to get money out of them," the director of one former partner said last week on the condition of anonymity. "They've not made any effort to pay any of it back.

"I've been here 30 years and if someone's in trouble, I'm the first one to try and help them. When someone doesn't seem to have learnt from their mistakes, that's when I'm really not happy."

Mrs Stayman declined to comment on the suppliers' allegations.

So Winchester, frequently cited alongside its predecessor as among Winchester's best eateries, occupies a grade II listed building with Georgian windows.

It is at the forefront of the city's independent business community. Mrs Stayman led battles against council clampdowns on advertising boards in 2009 and 2012.

It was unclear from the available public records how long the alleged debts accrued. One supplier told the Chronicle that it has started receiving repayments from Mr and Mrs Stayman.

Liquidator Simon Lowes, of Ashtons JWD, said: "The directors are adamant that those assessments can be overturned."

HMRC declined to comment when asked whether it was taking action or if any of the tax had been repaid.

A spokesman said: "We always try and recover as much money as we can from what people owe."

The Staymans also run Ginger Gelato, a dessert shop across the road from So Winchester, and are directors of a company called Lix Gelato.

They have no other business interests listed by Companies House.