When Keith Youngs' estate agency collapsed he vanished, promising: "No one will be left out of pocket."

A year later all his angry ex-clients remain unpaid, his once-loyal sister feels betrayed, a police investigation has stalled - and the man himself remains as elusive as ever.

Detective Constable Russ Jones, now leading the Sussex Police inquiry, insisted they would find Mr Youngs, last known to be living in Blackpool.

But he admitted there was very little chance of former Youngs Owen tenants, landlords or contractors getting their money back.

Mr Youngs closed his letting agency offices in Western Road, Hove, without warning on April 2 last year.

An investigation by The Argus found he faced claims of more than £60,000.

Landlords complained he had not passed on rent collected on their behalf, while tenants lost deposits and contractors were not paid for work done on properties.

Mr Youngs, formerly of St John's Road, Hove, failed to respond to clients who called or wrote to find out what was going on.

He also refused to pay Youngs Owen administrative consultant Juliana Zordan £836 in wages after she and two others were told not to come into work any more.

Her crime had been to speak to The Argus about the failing firm's final few days of misery.

When The Argus spoke to Mr Youngs on April 8 last year he promised the office would be up and running again soon.

He said tenants had been asked to pay landlords direct from April 1 and that some company assets were being sold to clear outstanding debts.

He added: "There is now a third party acting on our behalf. No one will be left out of pocket."

That third party was Sheffield insolvency practice Wilson Field, which Mr Youngs in fact directed to liquidate the business.

Wilson Field director Nick Wilson washed his hands of the Youngs Owen affair last June, exasperated at Mr Youngs' failure to provide financial information and cash.

Plans to hold a creditors' meeting, allowing claimants the chance to quiz Mr Youngs, were cancelled.

Mr Youngs launched his firm in January 2002, largely on commissions to manage apartments in art deco apartment block Embassy Court in Kings Road, Brighton.

A dispute with Chris Camillin, landlord of several flats in Embassy Court, began the firm's decline.

Australian-based Mr Camillin took civil action against the company after becoming concerned tenants' rents were being collected but not passed on to him.

Brighton County Court found for Mr Camillin in March last year, ordering Youngs Owen to pay more than £20,000.

The company accounts were frozen as unhappy clients bombarded it with calls for money.

Tenants who had been fined by Youngs Owen if they were late with rents were especially angry at the turn of events.

A former employee, remembering the last days, said: "We kept finding wads of cheques that had not been processed.

"I don't think he realised how much strife he was in.

"He wasn't bad to work for but I think he realised he'd gone in too deep. Towards the end he was getting very edgy as more and more people were ringing."

Last September Sussex Police wrote to 22 complainants who had made statements about the firm, asking for evidence.

Detectives interviewed Mr Youngs' sister Yvonne.

Now she and others are disappointed, though, to have heard nothing from the police in months and fear the trail has run cold.

Mr Jones, of the Sussex Police commercial unit based in Hollingbury, Brighton, said: "I know he's up North but we're still trying to track him down.

"It could be quite a long job.

"I know there are lots of alleged victims and the investigation has not been written off.

"I've been told he's in Blackpool but it's a big place. He's keeping his head down.

"Fraud investigations are notoriously slow. But we will get to him.

"I don't think anyone is going to get any money out of it, though. Our investigations have found there are no suggestions of lots of assets floating around."

Some complainants have urged police to investigate Yvonne Youngs as well.

But Mr Jones said: "She has been very helpful to us and should probably be listed among the other losers."

Ms Youngs had been invited by her brother to become co-director of the firm in April 2002 and invest £7,000 from the sale of her former home in Kent.

Stress forced her to quit the job several months before the office closed for the last time.

As her brother went to ground in the immediate aftermath of the company's collapse, she was left to defend Mr Youngs.

But last October she discovered she was another victim, having lost her home and most of her savings.

She and her three daughters had shared the house in St John's Road with Mr Youngs, believing it to be his. It actually belonged to Brighton restaurateur Ali Merat, himself owed about £10,000.

He let her stay until she could find another home and her elder brother Graeme helped find an alternative rented home off Race Hill, Brighton.

She has heard little from her younger brother, save for a few short phone conversations and a 42nd birthday card he sent her in February.

Mr Youngs, 30 last week, took two jobs in Manchester last summer - one using his management experience, the other a bar job.

Youngs Owen was formally dissolved in December 2002.

Ms Youngs said: "Talking with Keith, it's almost like it all never happened.

"That's how he deals with it - he pretends it never happened."