Locked Apple ID and no longer have access to that email account

I had an iPhone 7 which was provided by the company I worked for.

The Apple ID was set up with a company email address.

The company was in crisis and ended up closing. Fortunately I was able to keep the phone as a gesture of goodwill.

Problem now, if I hadn’t logged in for a while and forgot the password, which I have entered incorrectly too many times and now I have locked the account.

I can’t reset the password because the email account is no longer active (it was the company email which no longer exists).

So now I can’t do anything with the phone. I want to remove the old Apple ID and login with a new personal account, but to remove the old I have to login, which I can’t!

I can’t even reset the phone because it asks for the old account login.

I’m stuck!!!