Workers at a British luxury smartphone maker fear that hundreds of skilled jobs may be at risk amid anger over missing pension contributions and a dispute over how its Turkish exile owner took control of the business.

Vertu Corporation Ltd (VCL), which was once owned by the Finnish mobile giant Nokia and sells its “Handmade in England” handsets to wealthy clients for as much as £40,000, is also facing claims by suppliers over unpaid bills.

Sources inside the company have told The Telegraph that production is running at reduced capacity.

Contractors have stopped collecting rubbish and around 200 workers at the company’s Hampshire headquarters claim their wages are overdue this month.

VCL staff said in a formal grievance letter that they were due to be paid on Tuesday last week. Lawyers for the company's owner said wages are not due until this Friday.

A Telegraph review of company documents and testimony from current and former staff has raised questions over the management and future of the company since Murat Hakan Uzan, a Turkish exile based in Paris, took control in March.

Last week staff presented the company with their letter, demanding answers over hundreds of thousands of pounds in pension contributions that have been deducted from wages since February but not paid into the company’s retirement fund. They have received no answer as to why the payments to the pension scheme remain unpaid.