ANOTHER hammer blow has been dealt to staff at Convergent Communications, Pocklington's biggest employer, which crashed late on Thursday.

The final 21 people retained by the administrators at the mobile phone company's HQ at Blenheim House have been given their cards following a deadline at midnight last night.

And John Weatherill, who founded the organisation as JWE Telecom, has lost £8m overnight through his investment in Convergent.

Today's news brings the job loss total to 100, although a further 54 jobs were saved when a company division was sold on Thursday night.

A spokeswoman for administrators Ernst and Young has now confirmed that Genesis Telecommunications, of London, has bought a customer contract from Convergent but does not plan to take on staff. She said no other offers came in.

The shutdown today sparked anger from John Weatherill. "I feel physically sick," he said.

Mr Weatherill, 60, resigned three years ago as chairman and managing director of JWE Telecom - as it then was - following a heart by-pass operation.

Today he said he was dismayed about what had happened to the enterprise and its loyal staff.

He said of the new organisation: "They should have concentrated on making it work and selling more." Instead, he said, they concentrated on cutting costs and shedding jobs.

But a management spokesman countered Mr Weatherill by insisting that what was to blame for Covergent's collapse was a "profoundly competitive" telecoms market in which intermediary companies like Convergent were at the mercy of the likes of giant networks Vodafone and 02 which "squeezed them for profit."

At the time, Mr Weatherill resigned he had gleaned a £3 million personal bonanza from the flotation of the company plus sale of most of his shares for about £9 million.

He remained the biggest shareholder, ending with a 15 per cent stake, but he was not on the board of directors.

Updated: 09:11 Saturday, June 28, 2003