A failed department store has been wound up with known debts of at least £197,000.

Seven tribunal claims against the former Paris store, in Carlisle city centre, are also being pursued.

Carlisle City Council was this week granted a winding up order against the parent company behind the Castle Street store, which opened last year.

The authority brought the case over the store’s failure to settle a business rate debt of almost £125,000, which should have been paid in March.

Two other local authorities where Paris stores opened and then closed – one in St Helen’s, Merseyside, and the other in Keighley, west Yorkshire – have also started legal action against Paris’s parent company Gold Edge Trading Ltd over unpaid business rates.

The amount owed to St Helen’s Council is £82,000, while the figure owed to Bradford Council for the Keighley store has not been publicly disclosed.

Cumbria Law Centre is pursuing tribunal claims for seven former Paris employees in Carlisle – all involving unpaid wages – with one also including a claim for unfair dismissal.

The High Court winding-up order marks the final collapse of a store that has been dogged by controversy.

Staff from all three Paris stores – including the one in Carlisle, which was set up in the building formerly occupied by the Hoopers chain – repeatedly complained of not being paid their wages, with some left struggling to meet basic expenses such as rent.

One of the saddest accounts has come from the husband of a woman who now lies seriously ill in Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary.

Kaye Bracegirdle, 56, was assistant general manager at the Carlisle store when she suffered a brain haemorrhage and then a stroke, which left her unable to speak or walk.

Her husband Graham said he and his wife have been plunged into financial crisis after sickness payments were missed.

Now severely disabled, Mrs Bracegirdle and her husband face having to leave their home near Brampton.

As a result of the missed payments, said Mr Bracegirdle, 59, he and his wife are in arrears with their mortgage payments and thus will be unable to get another mortgage.

He said: “We will never own our own home again because of this. Those missed payments and the arrears have been extra worry and pressure at a time when we didn’t need it.

“Because of it, we’re going to have to sell the house sooner than we wanted.”

Mr Bracegirdle said that his wife had worked tirelessly to help get the Paris Store up and running last year.

Formerly a deputy manager with Hoopers in Carlisle, which still owns the building occupied by Paris, Mrs Bracegirdle left a job with the NHS to help run the new Castle Street store. “She gave it her all,” he said. “She was basically headhunted for Paris because of her knowledge of the store.”

Mrs Bracegirdle began suffering headaches in February, was referred by her GP to The Cumberland Infirmary and, while there, suffered a catastrophic brain bleed, and then a massive stroke.

“It destroyed the left side of her brain and partially destroyed the right,” Mr Bracegirdle continued. “She couldn’t talk, wasn’t mobile, and has to be fed through a tube.

“They eventually did give her sick pay – but missed payments for April and May and paid Kaye £100 short for the month of July.

“Kaye’s condition has improved, but she has a long way to go. She’ll be devastated when she knows that we are losing our home.”

Several attempts were made to speak to Paris owner Rebecca Menaged but she has declined to comment.

She earlier said that sales in the Carlisle store had “not reflected the size of the building.”

A Carlisle City Council spokeswoman said officers were waiting for the Official Receiver to deal with the liquidation. She added that Paris had paid no business rates at all.