Former employees of an engineering firm which was forced to shut as a result of a 'spelling mistake' made on a Companies House record believe they should receive some of the £9 million compensation their former boss won from the state agency. In 2009 Companies House had mistakenly recorded Taylor & Sons Ltd as having wound up, instead of an entirely unconnected company, Taylor & Son Ltd. The error forced businessman Philip Davison-Sebry to lay off his 250 staff - some of whom had worked for the firm for more than 40 years. These workers, pictured were all made redundant a decade ago after an official in Companies House made an error which led to the collapse of Taylor & Sons Ltd in 2009. The workers, back row, from left to right, are Wayne Ferrell, 66, Kelvin Pugh, 67 and Robert Preston, 69 and Andrew Davies. Sitting on the front row are Graham Thornton and Hubert Davies The engineering company from Neath, South Wales collapsed after an official mistook it for a completely unconnected company, Taylor & Son Ltd, which was being wound up. The typo saw 250 people lose their jobs In 2015, a High Court judge ruled Mr Davison-Sebry should be awarded damages of up to £8.8million. But the court did not consider whether the workers who lost their jobs and wages over the past decade should be compensated. The company in Neath, South Wales had been operating successfully for more than 150 years when the error destroyed its credit rating sending it rapidly out of business. Now a group of former employees, all living in the Briton Ferry area of South Wales, have come together to fight their case. They believe the Companies House error meant they had suffered in retirement. Some lost out in enhanced pension contributions. Robert Preston, 69, worked in the stores at the engineering firm. He said: 'Companies House have never had to do anything like this before. I believe it's unprecedented. 'Companies House had a duty of care to the people who were affected, but the duty of care to the employees has been completely ignored. 'It's a travesty of justice.' He calculated that he had lost out on £134k in earnings since he was laid off aged 59. 'Personally, I meant to finish working at 67,' he added. Businessman Philip Davison-Sebry, pictured, received almost £8 million in compensation from Companies House as a result of their blunder. His former workers only received statutory redundancy after losing their jobs Wayne Ferrell, 66, who was a manager and had worked at the firm for 41 years said the stress of losing his job affected his health. He said: 'It was bad for me, because my wife Margaret worked for the company too in the accounts team. 'I'd worked there for 41 years, and it was too late to go out looking for another job.' Andrew Evans, 57, said the first thing he knew about the collapse of the company was when people turned up looking around the office. 'We thought, "there's something going on here",' he recalled. 'Then Grant Thornton, the receivers, walked through the door and everyone was given their notice.' The error caused catastrophic damage to the firm's reputation and caused orders to dry up and credit facilities withdrawn making it impossible to continue trading. The former workers hope to be able to take a case against Companies House to reclaim some of the wages they lost out on as a result of the firm's collapse Robert Emmanuel, 67, said: 'We worked for a week for nothing hoping the situation would get resolved. 'We gave them the benefit of the doubt to see if we could help matters. 'In the end, we had to shoot off taking all our tools with us because we thought the administrators would end up with them. 'I went to a lot of people for work and they said "how old are you? Is it worth sending you for training because you will be retiring in a couple of years' time".' As well as the Neath site, there were around 200 people working in the Cardiff office who were also laid off. The staff only received the statutory minimum redundancy payment. Graham John, 69, who worked for the firm for 24 years said: 'I probably lost around £90k in wages,' said the 69-year-old. 'I suffered depression in the years after, and even now, it's always there in the background. It's surprising how it creeps up on you.' Mr John is the spokesman for the group, which first got together at the Briton Ferry workmans club over a year ago. At first they approached a solicitors in Swansea for legal advice, but said they couldn't afford the legal fees. 'We clubbed together for the first few meetings,' Mr Graham said, 'but after that, the costs just escalated.' Kelvin Pugh, 67, worked for 10 years as a furnace operator at the Neath site. He said: 'We could end up losing our houses. 'It's not a clear cut case. We haven't got money to throw at it.' A Companies House spokesperson said: 'The High Court did not consider whether the duty of care affects former employees of the company. Anyone who feels the judgment affects the position of former employees of the Company may wish to seek independent legal advice. 'The High Court found that a duty of care existed in relation to a company that was not in liquidation but was wrongly recorded on the register as being in liquidation. We have agreed confidential terms of settlement and this case has now concluded.' The group of former employees hope someone with the right legal expertise will take their case on, which they say is a 'landmark case'. Mr Preston said: 'We need someone who is not afraid of the establishment, someone who is prepared to stand up for us. 'This is a landmark case.' Mr John agreed with him. 'The bottom line is it wasn't through lack of money or lack of orders that we all lost our jobs, it was just one letter,' he said. Mr Davison-Sebry has been approached for comment.All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility