De Lorean damages agreed by Andersen

The Northern Ireland Office has agreed to settle a 12-year legal battle with the former auditors of the failed De Lorean car company. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but it is believed that damages of £18 million were accepted.

A total of £78 million of government money was pumped into the ambitious De Lorean project before the company crashed in 1982. Mr John De Lorean had promised to create 2,000 jobs in the production of futuristic sports cars in a plant in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast. Civil actions were first initiated by the British government in 1985 in the UK and the United States against De Lorean's former auditors, the international accountancy firm, Arthur Andersen and Co. The company was accused of negligence in the auditing of the De Lorean accounts.

Mr De Lorean arrived in Northern Ireland in 1979 and his plan received enthusiastic backing from the government and private sector companies. Production started at the plant in 1981, but the firm went into receivership a year later. Mr De Lorean was arrested on drugs-trafficking charges in the US but was later acquitted. Local creditors are still owed sums from £167 to £500,000, and it is not known how the settlement will affect them.