Pembrokeshire County Council considered £1.6m loan to Zano drone company which collapsed within months

The Zano drone project – run from the Pembrokeshire Science and Technology Park at Pembroke Dock – promised an autonomous mini aerial drone that could be controlled via a smartphone.

The project attracted more than £2 million via the Kickstarter website – a site where people can help fund projects -– but Zano collapsed suddenly in November.

Concerned by the failure of Zano, Kickstarter commissioned an investigation by top technology reporter Mark Harris.

In his in-depth report, Mr Harris details discussions with Steven Jones, head of development at Pembrokeshire County Council.

The report details how Ivan Reedman, the managing director of Torquing Group, requested around £1.6 million from the council to build a factory to develop the Zano.

Mr Jones said: “At the time, this was exactly what we were looking for.

“Here was a company that started off with a couple of people, grown, had this extraordinary success with the Kickstarter campaign, and was now looking to create 150-200 jobs.”

Mr Jones asked Mr Reedman to submit business and marketing plans for the development to council.

Mr Jones added: “We don’t as a general rule provide significant grants, or loans. But we were prepared to do that for Torquing.

“The money would have come out of a capital programme supporting building roads, schools and houses.”

But the development of a factory to produce the drones would have taken 12 to 18 months – far longer than the deadline for the drones to be delivered.

Mr Jones said: “We said, fair enough, if you want to come back at any time, we’re here. They never appealed to us for any support or help after that meeting in April 2015.

“We probably did dodge a bullet.”

The project was plagued by problems and the timescale for delivery of the drones continued to slip.

The first bulk deliveries of Zano, around 600, left Pembroke Dock on September 24.

The reviews were awful with backers reporting very poor performance.

On November 10 Mr Reedman resigned from Torquing and within days a liquidator had been appointed.

Pembrokeshire County Council trading standards officers are investigating the firm’s collapse and are understood to have received around 250 complaints.

They hope to conclude their investigation by April 2016, according to Mr Harris writes.

Mr Harris writes that many of the complaints argue that the drone did not match the description on the original Kickstarter webpage, and in particular the promotional video which was produced.

Mr Harris concludes that the video was misleading in terms of the Zano’s capabilities and readiness.

Among those who appeared in the Kickstarter promotional video was David Thomas, the manager of the Bridge Innovation Centre.

Mr Harris tried to speak to Mr Thomas but said PCC “would not make him available for interview.”.

He did however, answer Mr Harris’ questions, and said he and his wife were out for a walk when he was asked to pose for a scene shot in a pub’s beer garden.

Mr Thomas said he “acknowledges that what was in the video may perhaps be misleading.”.

Mr Thomas’ son, Sam, was also hired by Mr Reedman to edit the Kickstarter video and film further updates.

Mr Harris states he hopes “Pembrokeshire County Council’s trading standards will “get to the bottom of the, I believe, quite misleading Kickstarter video.”.

Concluding his report, Mr Harris said there is no sign of criminal fraud in the Zano case but he adds: “Personally, I do not believe that the creators possessed the technical or commercial competencies necessary to deliver the Zano as specified in the original campaign.”