The legal dispute between Dilton Robinson and the Bank of Bermuda will still "be pursued without delay", despite a Supreme Court decision knocking back fraud allegations, the Bermudian businessman said yesterday.

Mr. Robinson has claimed breach of trust and confidentiality in relation to a $1.7 million loan he took from the bank in the early nineties.

He recently lost an appeal by the bank against a Supreme Court decision to add fraud allegations to his writ.

In a press statement released yesterday he stressed that the Court of Appeal had made a decision based on procedure, not the facts or merits of the case and he is free to pursue the fraud allegations as part of a separate action. In a press release the Bank of Bermuda had dismissed Mr. Robinson's fraud allegations as a legal tactic "in order to try and avoid his claims being defeated because he had filed them too late".

The release added: "The Bank took the position that he was not in a position to do so as these matters occurred over a decade ago. The Court of Appeal has agreed".

And it said that Mr. Robinson was trying to blame the bank for the consequences of his own actions.

But Mr. Robinson says that the bank had during the hearings "conceded that it was open for me to raise the issue of fraud and deliberate concealment by way of a fresh writ. This is reflected in the judgment of the Court of Appeal".

He said it was not his intention to have the dispute "tried in the media", and added, "I find it surprising that the Bank of Bermuda seems to think it necessary to air its views in this manner" and that he was disappointed that the bank's press release contained statements which did not agree with their own lawyer's submissions during the hearing.

"There has been no determination of the issues of fraud and deliberate concealment, nor of the issue of whether or not the limitation period has expired," said Mr. Robinson yesterday.

During hearings which started November 14, the Court heard that a bank official John Fargey encouraged Mr. Robinson to take the loan, with his and his wife's combined assets as security, so he could consolidate his debts.

The bank and the Police service were at the time also engaged in an investigation into possible criminal activities and the Bank discovered information that linked Mr. Robinson to the police investigation.

However the Bank decided to proceed with the transaction, release the information to the Police and Mr. Robinson's employer David Gutteridge, a Bank shareholder, who then fired him.

Mr. Robinson could not service the loan and the bank called in the security. He was not in the end interviewed by the Police.

Mr. Robinson had in 1996 discovered internal e-mails between now Bank CEO Henry Smith and Mr. Fargey in which Mr. Fargey revealed the discovery of the information and enquired about going ahead with the transaction, and Mr. Smith giving the go ahead.