An angry Dockyard potter backed his former employer on Monday after German visitors claimed they were swindled by him.

Bermuda Clayworks owner Jon Faulkner said Regina and Gunter Einmal would have to accept that they would never receive two bowls they purchased for $120 from now-closed Island Pottery because the former owners of that company owed them nothing.

Mr. Faulkner, who left Island Pottery to open his own business just before the company went bankrupt in 1997, said: "They do not owe the Einmals any funds.

It is a situation where both parties lose and the hardest part is understandably for the Einmals to accept it.

"When a company goes bankrupt like Island Pottery, the company is liquidated, all the assets are sold and the funds raised by liquidating the company are divided amongst the creditors, and the case is closed.'' But the Einmals pointed out that they bought the bowls, on the understanding that they would be shipped to their home in Cologne, Germany, a year before the company went bust.

Mrs. Einmal said: "We are so upset because we made this business with Island Pottery one year before it went bankrupt. That is that point.'' The Royal Gazette revealed that the couple ordered and paid for the bowls but they never received them and repeated faxes, phone calls and letters to the company were ignored.

When the Einmals arrived on the Island three weeks ago, they discovered that former Island Pottery owners Jerry Smith and his wife Gloria were running a pottery stand on Front Street at Harbour Nights.

The couple confronted Mrs. Smith who, they said, fed them a "heartbreaking story'' but then offered the Einmals their money back. But Mr. Einmal said when Mrs. Smith spoke to her husband about the matter, he yelled at him and refused to refund them.

The Einmals said they were among dozens of other tourists who were cheated out of their money by Island Pottery.

But a spokesperson from the Consumer Affairs Bureau noted that some of the people with complaints against Island Pottery did not have "proper receipting''.

However the Einmals have retained their receipt, which dates back long before Island Pottery went bankrupt.

Mr. Faulkner added: "I think the Einmals have a right to be upset as they lost their $120, but I think that is where it should lay. The Smiths have been through enough.

"I think the article written points a heavy finger of blame at a few individuals that failed to run a successful company. A lot of us know how hard it is to run a business, not to mention making the business a success.

"People are too quick to point fingers with their opinions of how things should be done, how things can be done better and whether it is a successful venture or a failure,'' he continued.

"Bermuda is too small to be dragging up the past, naming names and pointing fingers, especially when it caused undue stress for families who have paid their debt through the financial legal system we install.'' The Einmals questioned why Mr. Faulkner was so "excited'' about their claim.

Mr. Einmal said: "I'm sorry that the company went bankrupt too, but they had one year's time to do what we paid for them to do.'' And Mrs. Einmal added: "They had a long time before they went bankrupt.

Her husband continued: "There was never an answer to a letter, three faxes or personal inquiries and what they told our friends turned out to be a load of garbage.

"They promised us a refund and it never came and then all sorts of other things.'' Mr. Smith now runs a pottery store called Candlelight Ceramics and is a regular vendor at Sonesta Beach Hotel and Harbour Nights.

Mrs. Einmal said she is appalled that the Smiths can continue to cheat other visitors.

"It's not the $120,'' she stressed, "but that they are now again able to sell pottery and to cheat people.'' Mr. Smith is within his legal rights to start a new business because there is no legislation prohibiting him from doing so after going bankrupt.

Continued attempts to contact him at his place of business have been unsuccessful.