Staff at PC builder Evesham Technology have been told the company has gone into administration and scores have been laid off.

They got the news on Friday 3 August after the troubled company sent out a bouyant press release saying it had received $22m funding from PCC Technology, described as an investment company managed from Dubai by Tahir Mohsan.

Mohsan and Tariq Mohammed founded Time UK computers, and there has been much speculation that they have had their eyes on Evesham.

Evesham's public-relations company was still in the dark this morning about the latest moves. A spokeswoman said: "So far as we now it is business as usual. "

But Carolyn Worth, who has long liaised with the press for Evesham, said this morning she has been laid off after 18 years with the firm. "I got a phone call from my boss on Friday morning."

Worth said she had seen a fax saying the company had gone into administration and that chairman Richard Austin had confirmed the fact on Friday evening. She was unsure how many people had been laid off but she believed support staff had been retained.

Austin sounded in tears when PCW phoned him late on Friday, but did not mention the fact that the company was in administration. The only comment he would make was: "I fought to make sure warranties would be honoured."

An angry entry in Wikipedia, evidently written by someone at Evesham, said: "Almost the entire workforce has been laid off."

Companies House has no record of Evesham Technology going into administration, but a spokesman said companies had two weeks to notify it.

For staff at Evesham Technology, a major local employer, the lay-offs are the second blow in a couple of weeks. Many were hit by the recent floods, though the company premises were untouched. Worth said: "First we had floods from the river. Now we have floods of tears."