Broker Vasek Insurance has pulled the plug on a household scheme following a technical hitch.
The company withdrew its tenants' contents cover at the end of June as it could not justify spending £20,000 on transferring the book of business to an old computer system.
Managing director Richard Berridge said a computer system had been installed especially for the scheme about three years ago, but it had failed to work, requiring the company to transfer the business to another system.
The business was underwritten by Canopius and Equity Red Star. Neither firm was available for comment.
Berridge said he could not disclose the details of why the system failed for legal reasons.
He said: "The cost couldn't be justified to transfer 50 policies, so we had to quickly withdraw from doing it."
The company had received £10-£15 profit from each policy.
A broker source said he had received a letter explaining that the withdrawal was due to computer problems and was unhappy that he had only been given seven days' cancellation notice.
