Adarma, the Edinburgh-based cybersecurity firm, has officially filed for administration, but over 100 employees claim they are owed wages that are as yet, unpaid.

Interpath was appointed the administrators for the company, which has its headquarters in Fountainbridge and another office in London, after Adarma’s financial situation became “incredibly challenging”.

“Following our appointment as joint administrators, we have been working with staff as a matter of priority, and are doing all we can to help them make claims to the Redundancy Payments Service in order to secure contributions towards wage arrears, as well as holiday, notice and redundancy payments, where applicable,” Alistair McAlinden, managing director and joint administrator, said.

Interpath was appointed as administrators about a week ago, shortly after it was revealed that Adarma had intentions of administration.

Since then, however, over 100 workers for the company have been ‘cruelly left in the lurch’ according to Thompsons Solicitors Scotland, which is represented a number of former employees of Adarma.

“Yet again loyal hard working employees have been led up the garden path by a company that knew it was in trouble but yet told them nothing,” Paul Kissen, a senior lawyer at Thompsons said.

“The employees have been treated with contempt. These workers are entitled to compensation through a protective award and I will make sure they get it.

“The employees who are part of the action will each get several weeks’ extra pay for the protective award, even those who only worked there for a very short amount of time.”

According to an Adarma employee who wished to remain anonymous, workers were told that the firm was seeking a new owner, but to not tell clients of the financial woes as they kept on working.

“Not long afterwards we were told about the administration and that we wouldn’t get paid. We were kept completely in the dark and then dumped without our salaries. As usual the actual workers are just cast aside without a second thought,” they said.

The cybersecurity firm, which was granted £2m from Scottish Enterprise to expand in 2022, had 173 employees at the time of its dissolution, who were then made redundant.

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Solicitors at Thompsons are working to ensure that former employees are given compensation for any lost wages.

“Adarma had built a strong reputation in the cyber security sector, but sustained margin and cashflow pressures ultimately proved insurmountable,” Interpath’s chief executive Will Wright, said.

“Like many in the industry, the business faced intense competition, rising operational costs and a continual need for investment – given Adarma’s financial position, we’ve made the difficult decision to cease trading.”

Alistair McAlinden added: “We understand this is an incredibly difficult time for all those affected by the administration of Adarma, particularly employees.

“Unfortunately, the financial position of the business was incredibly challenging, which ultimately led to it filing for insolvency and no option but to make redundancies.”