Miners’ millions returned

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 11

Miners’ millions returned

NZPA-PA London More than £2,500,000 ($6,900,000) of miners’ union assets, sent to Dublin to escape seizure by the English courts, returned to Britain yesterday. The court-appointed Receiver, Michael Arnold, announced that £2,542,816 ($7,018,200) of a total of more than £2,700,000 ($7,452,000) sent to Dublin by the National Union of Mineworkers before the pit strike had been transferred back to Britain.

Although the money will be lodged at the Co-op Bank, in Sheffield, in the name of the union, control over it will remain in Mr Arnold’s hands. The transfer was ordered in the High Court at Dublin by Mr Justice Barrington on an application by the N.U.M. The move was approved by Mr Arnold and was not opposed by sequestrators appointed by the High Court at London to freeze the union’s assets as punishment for contempt of court orders

during the pit strike. The transfer does little to bring nearer the return to Arthur Scargill and the union’s leadership of direct control of its assets. Lifting the receivership cannot affect the sequestration. This can only end when Mr Scargill and the executive “purge” their contempt. Lawyers have said that that would entail their apologising to the High Court for past contempts and a promise not to defy court orders in future.