P45, P60, statement of earnings

[meatskull]

From Nov 2010 - March 2012 i was employed on a PAYE basis by a building company that was owned by a family & the majority of that family worked for them or were directors, managers, etc etc. During this time the name of the company changed 3 times, yet the people working for the company remained pretty much the same. About a month ago, i checked my tax codes from the last 5 years with HMRC. They confirmed that my tax codes were wrong for the last 3 years. However, they also said that they have no records of any P60's or a P45 for my employment by the above company(s) & therefore had no idea how much i had earnt or how much tax i had paid. They said i would need to chase this with the company & ask for a statement of earnings to send HMRC so that they can check the rest of my earnings against the tax codes used. After much browsing of the web & with the help of companies house records i managed to find the company i used to work for under their current name & sent an email requesting a statement of earnings (As i guess them keeping a copy of any P45 or P60 would be out of the question - i only received 2 payslips in the entire time of working for them). Today i received an email saying that they could not go back that far in the payroll records & therefore would not be able to help. Is this legal? I believed that it was a legal requirement for all companies to keep at least 5 years of tax records, in case HMRC had any dispute with them. I am believe that this company(s) have not declared the PAYE that i have paid. I am also concerned that HMRC will expect payment for the tax & NI for what i earnt during this time. I believe that at least one of the name changes was due to an alleged "take over" by another company, whose director just so happened to be another member of the same family mentioned above. Another name change was supposedly as a result of the previous company becoming insolvent & all staff were told that we were being tee-pee'd over to the new company as they had taken over our contracts. The directors listed for this company were also members of the same family! I feel like i have been ripped off by the company(s) i worked for & that they have evaded paying taxes by the constant changing of the company name on a regular basis. Can anyone shed any light on what i can do about this & where to go next? Apologies for any incorrect teminology, this is not something i am very well educated about.