A FORMER Summerseat businessman, who became embroiled in the long-running Stalker affair in the mid-1980s, has died.

Kevin Taylor (68) died on Friday in Fairfield General Hospital only weeks after major heart surgery. His wife and daughters were at his bedside.

In 1986 Mr Taylor was blamed for the removal of his friend John Stalker, the then Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, from an inquiry into an alleged "shoot-to-kill" policy by the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Mr Taylor was subject to a four-year investigation which resulted in his bankruptcy but was only prosecuted on a minor fraud charge.

He was forced to leave his luxury home in Wood Mill, Summerseat, and moved to Accrington claiming state benefits.

A secret police unit had wrongly claimed that Mr Taylor was laundering money for Manchester's Quality Street Gang and had lent his yacht for drug-running. He was kept under constant surveillance for 114 days and had his phone tapped and mail opened. In January 1990, a 16-week trial at Manchester Crown Court ended dramatically when Mr Taylor and three other businessmen were cleared of fraud charges. The property developer later sued Greater Manchester Police for alleged malicious prosecution, claiming he was the victim of a "high-level conspiracy" to discredit Mr Stalker. He stood to win millions if the case was proven. In June 1995, Mr Taylor agreed an out-of-court settlement with GMP for a figure believed to be around £1 million.

Police said that the decision to settle was to avoid huge costs and not an admission that they had done anything wrong.

Mr Taylor used the compensation to buy a large house in Helmshore, where he lived with his wife Beryl and daughters Kate and Emma.