Hundreds of people have been left without wages after they turned up to work to hear their company had gone bust.

Bosses at call centre Telegen shut the doors of its Brighton city centre office yesterday morning after admitting there was no money left to pay staff.

About 300 employees were immediately made redundant and now face an anxious few weeks while the company's assets are sold off and they wait to find out how much they will be paid.

Telegen called in business recovery specialist White Maund to handle the liquidation.

Andrew White, from White Maund, read out a statement from the directors: “Due to continuing extremely tough economic conditions, including some companies placing work to offshore locations such as Asia and South Africa, Telegen has unfortunately ceased trading today.

“Telegen has been operating in Brighton for ten years and deeply regrets that the recession has forced this conclusion. Telegen will do everything it can to minimise the impact on clients, customers and employees.”

Scores of staff found out their jobs had gone when they turned up for work in the morning.

Clutching their redundancy letters, crowds of young workers made phone calls to the JobCentre to get a sought after appointment.