A former Bradford Northern rugby player was today celebrating after he was awarded nearly £48,000 against a company which sacked him because he was black.

It is believed to be one of the largest awards in a race case outside London.

Bak Diabira, right, 50, a scrum-half who was with Northern from 1966-75, was working as a warehouse manager for Bradford-based car parts firm Federal Mogul Aftermarket UK Ltd when he was dismissed last May.

His colleague Dalton Fletcher, of Halifax, was also awarded £30,000 against the same company for the same reason.

The award was made after Mr Diabira, of Wyke, Bradford, took his case to a Leeds industrial tribunal for unlawful discrimination, unfair dismissal, loss of earning and injury to feelings.

Mr Diabira, who was also a coach at Keighley Rugby League Club from 1981-82, had worked for the company for 29 years since 1969.

Today he said: "Nothing will compensate for the fact that I lost my job. The other factor is that £48,000 might sound a lot but at the end of the day this had cost me in excess of £300,000 in lost earnings because that is what I could have earned in the next 15 years until I retired.

"When you have given 29 years of your life to company and are treated the way my colleague and I were you find it very hard to understand."

The tribunal heard company operations director Mr Ian Fleming had no knowledge of the company's own redundancy policy or of the need to carry out equal opportunities procedures.

Mr Diabira said: "You would expect senior executives of a multi-national company to at least know about the company's equal opportunity procedures."

Speaking about the effect the case had had on him, Mr Diabira who had now got a temporary job as a stock controller for Grattan plc, said he would never get over the effects of the case.

"It will be with me for the rest of my life. I have been married to a white lady for 28 years, my mother was white so there is no racial prejudice in me whatsoever."

He said he would be investing the money towards his pension.

The tribunal heard when the company decided on redundancies Mr Fleming did not consider all the managers for selection but chose the two black managers for the sack. The tribunal ruled that process was no more "than a sham," and found that both men were competent mangers.

After Mr Diabira was sacked he was forced to compete for what was effectively his old job at lower pay and the tribunal heard: "to add injury to insult" Ian Fleming gave the job to a white worker who was not at risk.

Erskine (Corr) Grant of the Northern Complainant Aid Fund who represented the two men said: "We believe it is one of the largest awards in a race case outside London."

Feral Aftermarket UK Ltd were unavailable for comment.

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