Dundalk Business School, which ran a college of further education and is now insolvent, was wound up by order of the High Court yesterday.

Mr Justice O'Neill was told the company had agents, mainly in India who, in turn, had sub-agents marketing its courses - and that there were about 85 Indian students in Dundalk, who had paid fees and had come to Ireland to do computer courses.

Yesterday, Mr Edward Walsh, who was appointed as the company's liquidator, told the court in an affidavit that he had taken numerous phone calls from students.

The calls mainly concerned the refund of fees, the student's options to obtain places on other courses and their difficulties in paying for such courses.

They also explained that it would be difficult to extend their visas, given that their courses had been terminated and that the company could no longer provide written verification of their attendance to the authorities.

When the matter came before the court on November 26th last, it was claimed that the company had about 200 creditors in India, who had paid deposits of between €1,000 and €7,500.

Yesterday, Mr Mark O'Connell, for the Overseas Education Representatives Association, an Indian-based umbrella organisation involved in arranging courses for Indian students in the European Union, said his clients were unsecured creditors who were owed €600,000. They did not agree on how the college had got into trading difficulties, but would support Mr Walsh's appointment as liquidator.

Mr Patrick J Cowhey, solicitor, in an affidavit for the association, said he had been retained to act for 300 students whose applications were processed through the association, which had discharged about €450,000 in tuition fees to theschool - and had sent another €150,000 to the school in support of visa applications which were unsuccessful.

The directors of the school were named as: Mr Mark Markey (also company secretary) of Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth; Mr Thirunavukarasu Prabaharan, of Fraser Road, Green Ford, Middlesex, England; Mr Faisal Rahim, of Wensleydale Avenue, Ilford, Essex, England; and Mr Sanjay Laul, of Gujarat, India.

Mr Markey, in an affidavit, said the Dundalk premises had been raided by gardaí in September and subsequently the Garda National Immigration Bureau had ceased granting visas to any students who had paid fees or deposits to the company.

He said that in late 2003, difficulties arose with courses offered by the firm. In particular, some of the promises made by the school's agents to students in India could not be fulfilled and the students had complained.

Mr Markey and his co-directors denied there had been any fraud and said the company offered a bona fide school which got into trading difficulties.

The earlier court hearing was told the college only started business in 2003. Costs were higher than anticipated and there were student complaints in relation to the quality of the courses.

The court also heard that one of the company's agents in India had received a death threat.