THE lives of 300 East Lancashire families were wrecked by the the criminal activities of crooked civil servant Gordon Foxley.

He took bribes from foreign companies which then got lucrative arms contracts at the expense of Blackburn's Royal Ordnance Factory.

Foxley's corrupt activities - said at the time to be "the largest individual case of fraud in government circles ever" - are thought by many to have led directly to the closure earlier this year of the ROF which employed 3000 people in the 1960s.

His civil service salary was £25,000 a year but Foxley had several homes in Britain and abroad, a fleet of some of the world's most expensive cars and Swiss bank accounts.

The former director of munitions procurement was sentenced four years in jail in 1994 and ordered to pay back £1.5million to the government in 18 months or face another three years in jail.

Two years later Foxley was out of prison and back in the main family home - a £1m plus Oxfordshire mansion with its own swimming pool beside the River Thames.

The money had not been repaid and wily Foxley has claimed he has no assets. Before he was jailed the mansion was transferred to his wife's name.

Today, eight years after his conviction, we hear that action has finally been started by the trustee in bankruptcy appointed by his creditors to get the High Court to rule that at least part of the house is his so it can be sold off.

Union leader Jack Dromey says he plans to make sure the money the government is chasing will, at least in part, go to those in East Lancashire who suffered because of Foxley's corruption.

The bill to the local economy has been estimated at many millions of pounds.

Of course any money recovered should come back directly to those who were victims of Foxley's crimes. What's puzzling is why the authorities have let this man continue to enjoy such a lifestyle for so many years before deciding to get tough.