Arrows' debts total more than £51m Formula One racing team Arrows Grand Prix International went into liquidation owing more than £51m, creditors were told.

At the meeting in London, creditors voted to appoint Kevin Hellard and Geoffrey Rowley of accountants Rhodes Robson to act as joint liquidators to dispose of the company's assets.

Creditors heard that the estimated deficiency of money owed to them amounted to nearly £25m, with another £26m owed to shareholders.

A spokesman for the official receiver, who called the meeting, said directors of the west Oxfordshire company, including racing supremo Tom Walkinshaw, blamed the company's downfall on a lack of sponsorship and an inability to sell the business as a going concern.

Representatives of Ford-owned Cosworth Racing, which is owed £2.4m, and Wylam International Holdings, owed £3.2m, attended.

Liquidators said it was too early to say how much the company's 250 former employees would receive.

Many of them worked for three months without pay, having been told that they would eventually be paid.

Arrows' creditors include merchant bankers Morgan Grenfell, who successfully sued the Formula One team in the High Court in February. Other companies included AEA Technology and Unipart.

Racing driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen is also on the list.

Arrows shared its Leafield site with another enterprise of Tom Walkinshaw's, engineering company TWR, which is now in admin- istration.

The administrator for TWR, Rob Hunt of accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, is aiming to sell it as a going concern.

It appears on the list of creditors and is owed money by Arrows.

However, a spokesman for PricewaterhouseCoopers said the TWR deal did not involve selling the Leafield site.

It is understood to belong to a third company, in which Mr Walkinshaw has an interest.

TWR's workforce, which stood at 500 before it went into administration, has been reduced to 100.

Spokesman Lorna Siddall said: "It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the site."