Specialist professional services consultancy Begbies Traynor Group plc has acquired a Stoke financial services firm for an undisclosed sum.

Walletts Insolvency Services, based at Adventure Place, Hanley, specialises in corporate recovery and insolvency services for local and regional small or medium sized businesses and also personal insolvency work for individuals. It was part of the Walletts accountancy firm, which continues as an independent organisation.

Following the acquisition its eight staff will join the group's office at Caverswall Lane, Stoke on Trent in the New Year.

The acquisition follows the death last year of Walletts' insolvency practitioner Mike McCarthy.

Begbies Traynor partner Bob Young said: "Mike McCarthy was a friend as well as a fellow professional and it will be an honour for us to maintain and develop the good name he built for his firm.

"Walletts' reputation, expertise and client base fit perfectly with our ambitions for the group. The deal is consistent with our strategy of considering both organic investment and acquisition opportunities, principally in the insolvency and restructuring sector and we look forward to welcoming the Walletts staff into the organisation and helping us to expand our offer in the region."

Keith Salt, a partner at Walletts, added: "We are delighted that this acquisition will enable the first class service provided by this insolvency practice to develop in the future.

"Over the years, Mike McCarthy built a team which we believe will continue to thrive within Begbies Traynor."

Last week Begbies Traynor Group also acquired Hamiltons, a Sheffield based firm of business recovery and insolvency practitioners.

For more information about Begbies Traynor, please visit their website here: www.begbies-traynorgroup.com