A firm that was appealing against a £110,000 fine imposed for cover-pricing has gone into administration with the loss of 33 jobs.

Coventry-based builder GAJ Group, which turned over £18.5m in 2009, was engaged in a number of housing and schools projects, including a £3m development of Harris School for Warwickshire council.

It was one of 25 contractors awaiting a delayed announcement by the Competitions Appeals Tribunal (CAT) on their appeals against the £129.2m in fines imposed by the Office of Fair Trading after an investigation into cover-pricing.

The tribunal originally advised appellants, which include heavyweights such as Kier, Sisk, Seddon, Apollo and Galliford Try, that the appeals would be decided early in the new year.

It is now feared the decision will not be announced until March because the CAT is also trying to determine appeals on a parallel investigation into construction industry recruitment firms.

Stephen Ratcliffe, chief executive of the UK Contractors Group, said: “We’re still waiting to hear when the judgment will be, but we’ve heard it could be as late as early March. The tribunal will have to come to individual decisions on each case, making the determinations very complex.”

The OFT found GAJ had accepted a cover price from Thomas Vale for a £400,000 contract to build an industrial unit in Coventry. It was fined £110,000 in September 2009.

The administrator of GAJ, RSM Tenon, said 33 jobs have been lost from the construction division, one of three firms in the group. It would not say how many workers are still employed by GAJ Holdings and GAJ Planned & Reactive Maintenance Ltd.

Bev Marsh, director at RSM Tenon, said: “It appears the group’s situation has been caused by a combination of factors. Not only has the economic downturn spelled disaster for a number of regional and national firms in the construction sector, but with public spending cuts GAJ had suffered from the reduced number of tenders in the market.”