The finance chief of troubled food group Patisserie Holdings was arrested overnight.

Chris Marsh was arrested last night and later released on bail by police as the company continues its investigation into possible fraudulent accounting irregularities.

Birmingham-based Patisserie Holdings, which owns brands such as café chain Patisserie Valerie and sandwich shop Philpotts, suspended trading of its shares on AIM earlier this week and suspended Mr Marsh.

It has been handed a tax bill of £1.1 million and served with a winding up petition for its principal trading unit Stonebeach.

The winding up hearing is scheduled for October 31 and Patisserie Holdings said it was in communication with HMRC as it strived to "understand better the financial position of the group".

The group, which floated in 2014 and whose head office is in Hall Green, is part-owned by Luke Johnson, the serial entrepreneur who led the growth of Pizza Express.

It also owns café chain Druckers and bakeries Baker & Spice and Flour Power City Bakery.

A statement posted to the stock exchange this morning said: "The company has been made aware that Chris Marsh, who is currently suspended from his role as finance director, was arrested by the police last night and has been released on bail.

"Further updates will be released in due course as appropriate."

This follows yesterday's stark announcement from Patisserie Holdings that there was "a material shortfall" between the reported financial status and the current financial status of the business.

"Without an immediate injection of capital, the directors are of the view that that is no scope for the business to continue trading in its current form," it added in an update to the market.