A QUARTER of Bury's missing BCCI millions is coming home five years after the bank crashed.

A deal has finally been thrashed out and a first payout of 24.5 per cent - more than originally thought - should be in local authority coffers by Christmas.

Bury lost £6.5 million when the Bank of Credit and Commerce International went bust in the world's biggest banking collapse.

The Bank of England shut down the bank in 1991, with ten billion dollars owed to thousands of businesses and individual investors across the globe.

Bury was one of the biggest losers in the UK and, with other creditors, has spent years going through the courts to get compensation.

Council officers took a prominent role on the various creditors' committees, trying to reach a settlement with the failed bank's major shareholders.

But while the £1.7 million dividend has been welcomed, the bad news is that it cannot be spent maintaining local services. Council leader John Byrne said: "Getting this money back is great news although sadly it will not help us meet the cuts the Government is forcing us to make in the coming year.

"The cash we receive from BCCI is already committed in the budgeting system."

Bury is part of an action to sue the Bank of England for negligence, while the liquidators are also suing the bank's auditors.

"We feel increasingly confident that much of the money we are owed will come back to us in the long term," said Coun Byrne. Bury's cash comes after the bank's liquidators concluded a 1.8 billion dollar settlement with the government of Abu Dhabi. Working with the American authorities, they also recovered a further 500 million dollars.

The forecast is that up to 40 per cent of the money lost will ultimately be returned. Bury, like other councils, has been allowed to write off the remainder over seven years.

Coun Byrne added: "We still feel that there are people and institutions out there who have a responsibility for what happened and have yet to be brought to task.

"Our primary aim is to ensure that the money we had taken from us is returned, but we also feel strongly that those who are to blame should be made to pay."

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