TWO former directors of Poole Pottery were paid tens of thousands of pounds and spent more than £50,000 on company credit cards as the pottery spiralled towards collapse, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Documents seen by the Echo show that just days after taking over in August 2006, managing director Jeffrey Zemmel and chairman Roy Simmons agreed take £150,000 each annually, to be paid in weekly instalments to their respective companies.

And as the pottery plunged deeper into debt, they used a company chequebook to pay £52,387 to Mr Simmons and £46,250 to Mr Zemmel - including £19,000 each described as "loan repayments", which began just two weeks after they took over.

In the five months before the pottery went into administration they wracked up £50,000 in spending on Poole Pottery Ltd credit cards, making payments to Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury's, a golf club, chiropractic clinic and an array of expensive restaurants.

The Jewel Box received two payments totalling more than £1,600, Boutique Homme received some £1,130, and Allied Carpets, The Nut Hut and a Sky subscription are also among the items to appear on credit card statements.

The spending continued right up to December 21, the day the factory closed leaving some 100 staff jobless and unpaid just before Christmas. Days earlier, Roy Simmons had used his company card for a £500 spend at Jessops.

During this time Poole Pottery Ltd was also paying £2,400 for the rental of a three-bed waterfront property.

The paperwork seen by the Echo also shows the amount the pottery owed to trade creditors rose by £146,050 to £493,499 under the two men's stewardship.

And a £303,745 debt to HM Revenue and Customs was also amassed from failure to make PAYE and NIC payments from July 5 2006.

Bob Lanning, Transport and General Workers Union representative for Dorset, who set up an appeal for donations for the pottery workers in the wake of the crisis, said they would feel "disgusted" and "genuinely sorrowful" at the revelations.

He is still fighting for salary and holiday pay for former members of staff, some of whom had given virtually their whole working lives to Poole Pottery.

He added: "The fact is they were playing with people's lives - their homes, their children their futures. They are the ones that suffer at the end of the day.

"They were poorly paid people living week to week. This will be very hard for them to take. They will be asking how this was allowed to happen - and where they the directors are now."

The administration of the company during this period is being investigated on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform under the 1986 Company Directors Disqualification Act.

When Jeffrey Zemmel took on the pottery he had a criminal conviction and had also been banned from managing a company for five years. The five-year disqualification only ran out in March 2005.

When the Quayside retail store and Sopers Lane factory closed before Christmas 2006, the Echo reported the pottery went into administration owing at least £1m to some 300 creditors.

The Echo contacted Mr Zemmel and Mr Simmons but neither had any comment to make.