CITY Link deliberately deceived workers in Swindon about the state of the troubled business before it collapsed with more than 60 job losses, a committee of MPs has claimed.

In a report on the collapse of the delivery firm, the Scottish affairs committee said the company and its private equity owners were “morally, if not legally, responsible for the difficulties that many individuals and small business now find themselves in”.

MPs said self-employed staff and contractors had been deceived by the company and owner Better Capital.

The committee said the financial difficulties of the City Link contractors were exacerbated by the fact they had been encouraged to take on additional staff and vehicles and to work longer hours in the run up to Christmas.

Christopher Jones, 56, of Whiteman Street, Gorse Hill, was one of the full-time employees laid off over Christmas, and although he got his payout he knows others still waiting.

He said there had been rumours around the depot at Interface Business Park in Royal Wootton Bassett, but nothing concrete.

He has also spoken with former colleagues, who were effectively self-employed contractors, who are still waiting for some redundancy payout.

“The union is still trying to get something out of it for the workers, but how much they’ll achieve, I don’t know,” he said.

“I have seen two people in the last week, one of them is owed £6,000 and the other one a lot more. I’m just lucky I wasn’t self-employed.

“They tried getting me to go that way on four or five times. It allows them to take you off the books. If you’re self-employed you’ve got to pay your own tax and insurance.

“If they did want to get rid of you, if they didn’t need you, it wouldn’t be too difficult and you wouldn’t get any redundancy at all.

“Behind the scenes we knew something went wrong, but we are not in a position to do anything about it.

“It’s not old news, that’s not the word, but at some point you do have to move on with things.

“Thinking back on it, there were things going around when it dropped off just before Christmas, but then it went manic over the Christmas period and talk changes.

“I have since spoken to other people and they reckon there were rumours, but there’s only so much you know.”

The report said: “We are dismayed that, although it was clear for some time there were serious questions over the ability of City Link to continue trading after December 2014, small businesses and self-employed drivers working for City Link were encouraged to take on additional costs despite a strong possibility they would not receive payment for a significant part of their work in December.”

The report said City Link took a deliberate decision not to inform employees and contractors as to the true intentions and position of the company, and “this was done for the financial benefit of City Link and Better Capital.”

It added: “This amounts to a deliberate deception by omission.”