EXCLUSIVE by Joanne Rowe: A BUSINESSMAN involved in a 20-year court battle over a grocer's shop sent the bailiffs into council offices over a £485,000 debt.

Astonished workers watched as a team of bailiffs arrived with two large lorries at Salford Council's offices in Swinton.

The bailiffs had been sent in by Bolton businessman Geoffrey Torkington and they refused to leave until finance officers electronically transferred nearly £500,000 to a nominated bank.

Today the leader of the Labour-controlled council, Cllr John Merry, admitted the cash had been paid out, but said the council was appealing against the size of the payout.

But the Tory leader, Cllr Karen Garrido, said she was surprised by the amount of the payout and that it was "very embarrassing" that the bailiffs had been sent into council offices.

The amazing scenes came after a 20-year legal battle which ended in the High Court last month when a judge ruled that the council should pay the £485,000 debt.

The dispute centred around a shop in Cleggs Lane, Little Hulton, which Mr Torkington, aged 52, leased from Salford City Council in the early 1980s.

He had opened the Sod Hall mini-market in September 1981 as a general grocery store. But just weeks later, another grocer's opened in a council-owned shop on the Amblecote estate. Then, in 1986, a third general grocer's opened in Cleggs Lane a short distance away.

Mr Torkington claimed he had had an agreement with the council that no other shops would be allowed in the area selling similar goods. The Sod Hall mini-market business closed in 1988 after trade declined.

Salford Council lost its long running legal dispute with Mr Torkington when a judge found in favour of the businessman in 2001.

Following a series of court hearings last month, a judge ruled the council should pay £485,000 to Mr Torkington.

But the money was never paid and, on April 1, he applied to the Sheriff at Chester to send in the bailiffs.

According to a source at the council: "Once inside the building, the bailffs began logging all the council's equipment, including bin waggons and computers, and said they would remove them them in payment of the debt.

"The bailiffs refused to accept a cheque and demanded that the outstanding debt be transferred electronically to the bank while they waited.

"They only agreed to leave when senior council officers told them the cash had been sent electronically."

Cllr Merry said: " The main disagreement is about the amount of the money. We thought £200,000 was a reasonable offer to make, but the judge thought otherwise."

Mr Torkington declined to comment.