An administration firm has dismissed claims it profited from compensation payouts to asbestos victims in Bradford.

Asbestos litigation firm Thompsons has claimed a £70 million bill is being paid to administrator Kroll in connection with the compensation packages for victims exposed to asbestos while working at factories owned by the former Turner & Newall group which was bought by Federal Mogul in 1998.

The allegation follows the announcement last month that creditors had voted in favour of the package that will provide for those affected at the more than ten factories T&N owned in Bradford.

Thompsons said the bill was an insult to asbestos victims, some of whom it says will only receive 20 per cent of their entitled claim.

However, a spokesman for Kroll said the total amount it received for its work with Federal Mogul was in fact £40 million and that asbestos claims only amounted to five per cent of this total.

The spokesman said: "The case was one of the most complex and complicated in history, involving 134 different companies.

"The fees which Kroll have received are a matter of public record and were approved by creditors.

"Asbestos claims for victims accounted for only five per cent of this total. Initially victims were offered just seven per cent of their entitled claim. But we along with other parties have managed to secure them 20 per cent."

Many workers with T&N companies went on to develop diseases like mesothelioma and many have died while waiting for their compensation claims to be settled.

It took five years of negotiations for a compensation deal to be agreed at which claimants accepted to share a £69 million fund.

The deal was struck for 20 pence in the pound, meaning victims with claims worth £100,000 would only receive £20,000.

e-mail: mark.casci@bradford.newsquest.co.uk