Rebellious traders who refused to pay their annual fee to a business improvement company have lost their battle in court.

A group of 33 traders who refused to hand over cash to Leytonstone’s E11 Bid Company were handed liability orders, ordering them to pay up at Waltham Forest Magistrates Court, yesterday.

The company has been plagued by financial mismanagement over a number of years but is said to be back on track by chairman Fawad Sheikh.

In 2014 it was found to be around £80,000 in debt despite collecting a levy totalling £65,000 a year from 300 businesses since 2008 and receiving public funds from the council.

Evidence also emerged that income tax contributions for E11Bid staff had not been paid.

Waltham Forest council is responsible for collecting the levy and two previous court hearings at Thames Magistrates Court have been adjourned.

Representing the council, Michael Mullins said that the court must only decide whether or not the traders were duty bound to pay, not the state of the company.

He said: “The thrust of my argument is that this court does not have the jurisdiction to deal with the sorts of objections being raised.

“The simple question is, is the sum due? Has the local authority complied? And has the bill been paid?

“If the answer to any of these three questions is no, the court is bound to make a liability order.”

Mr Mullin went on to describe how in late 2013 the council considered pulling the plug on the E11 Bid company and carried out an investigation.

However, he said nobody challenged the final decision to allow it to continue with a judicial review.

“This is simply not the venue for investigating what happened within the company; there are proper places,” he added.

Shah Ahmed, owner of the Star of India in Leytonstone High Road represented all 33 businesses, along with two others.

He gave a detailed history of the issues traders had with the E11 Bid and set out six reasons for objecting to pay the bill.

He said: “We have no idea where the money went in the first five years. The bid had large debts and then after the ballot we were told to pay again, and our money was only going to pay off old debts.

“We have been victimised throughout this whole process and we should not be the losers.

“We support the idea of the bid, we all do. For me it is £90 per year and my neighbour Tesco puts in £17,000.

“We have £67,000 to spend on improving the area, we have a massive opportunity but because of the mismanagement we have missed out.”

Deputy District Judge Tom King said: “I hear that is has been run in a chaotic way, and I am not sure that is up for dispute.”

However, he refused all six opposing reasons, stating he could only take the point of law raised by the council.

The E11 Bid Company will comment later today.