The millionaire owners of bankrupt parcels firm City Link cried crocodile tears yesterday as workers across Britain formally received their redundancy notices.

Witnesses reported “absolute chaos” at distribution centres as staff were called in before dawn to hear their fate and customers rushed to find their parcels amongst an estimated million stuck in the system.

Business Secretary Vince Cable faced renewed pressure to act after it was revealed that tax-dodging parent company Better Capital (BC) will get £20 million from administrators while taxpayers are left with the redundancy bill for 2,700 direct employees.

City Link’s owner, which pulled the plug on December 24, claimed in a City statement it was “disappointed” and its directors “very much regret” the impact on workers who found out the dire news on Christmas Day — despite the firm preparing to bail out as far back as September.

BC confirmed that it expects to receive up to £20 million as it had funded the firm through “secured capital loans to protect its interests.”

At the same time hundreds of subcontractors now face bankruptcy due to unpaid fees running into tens of thousands that are unlikely to ever be met.

Northamptonshire transport company boss Lee Brown said he was owed over £150,000.

“I could lose my house over this and I found out about it watching the news,” he said.

“Owner-driver” Kev Emmet of, Bursledon, Hampshire, said he was owed £3,500.

“I’m unemployed now, I’ve got a family — it’s bad,” he told the Southern Daily Echo. “It’s going to be hard because there’s so many people looking for work.

“I can’t sleep, it’s just horrible, it’s just worry, total and utter worry.”

But multimillionaire BC founder and chief Jon Moulton fuelled rising anger with an unrepentant appearance on BBC radio, suggesting taxpayers should be happy that City Link had “paid a fortune” in national insurance and VAT over the past 18 months.

He claimed that the government had been aware of City Link’s collapse “some days before” but had not requested a meeting.

RMT union general secretary Mick Cash branded BC’s actions “a sickening example of the ability of wealthy speculators to treat their workers like dirt.”

He said: “It says everything about the state of industry in Britain today that a donor to the party of government can wreck the lives of thousands of people, walk away and leave the taxpayer to pick up the redundancy costs.”

Mr Cash demanded a halt to the lay-offs and urged Mr Cable to call a summit involving his union and the administrators to “discuss all the options.”

Unions blamed government attacks on employment law for allowing bosses to shut the firm with such ease.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady accused ministers of allowing BC to use “insolvency to take the money and run.”