The move is designed to buy a firm breathing space while it deals with cash flow problems.

The court-filed document prevents creditors taking action against a company and protects firms from winding-up petitions for a minimum of ten days.

Dennis Cox is based in Slough and enjoyed a turnover of £15m and a pre-tax profit of £508,000 according to its latest accounts.

The firm has worked on a number of high profile jobs including Wembley stadium, the Olympic Athletes Village and Harrods.

Construction credit reference specialist Top Service has had 15 reports of non-payment by Dennis Cox referred to it by customers.

Louisa Morgan, Operations Manager at Top Service said: ”It is our insider intelligence that resulted in us monitoring the company carefully over the last few months. There were no other warning signs.

“Being able to provide our customers with a early warning resulted in us being able to collect some accounts for them.”

Repeated phone calls and emails from the Enquirer went unanswered by Dennis Cox’s head office.

Meanwhile, Staffordshire specialist contractor Cannock Electrical & Mechanical Services has fallen into administration.

The firm, which carried out jobs worth up to £5m, was set up by Gary Kenna, managing director of Cannock Electrical back in 2004.

The mechanical business, now in administration, was sold to new owners two years ago and has no connection with Cannock Electrical, which continues to trade normally.