BURY chief executive Glenn Thomas has given an insight into the club’s financial dealings following claims high-interest loans were being used to fund their rise from relegation strugglers to promotion candidates.

An article published on the Guardian website last week highlighted a £1million loan, taken out and secured on the club by chairman Stewart Day at an interest rate of 10 per cent per month - or 138 per cent per annum.

Following a raft of high-profile signings, including those of former Championship players Danny Mayor, Nicky Adams and Danny Rose, concerns were raised in the story that the future of the club was being put at risk.

Stuart Cook, a spokesman for a concerned group of small Bury shareholders, said: “We want a successful club but based on sustainable spending. Whilst the improvements of the last year are encouraging, we are worried that the spending appears to be from money borrowed against the ground, at a very high cost.”

However, Thomas has refuted those claims. In an extensive interview with the Bury Times, the full transcript of which has been published on our website, the chief executive denied the high interest loan had been secured against the club, as suggested, or used to fund player transfers.

“The monies were, in effect, secured by one of the chairman’s other businesses (SG Sports Management) for which he has invested in a project and that project has secured the loan,” he said. “The loan is not being funded at all by Bury Football Club.

“There has been a separate, private agreement, which is not on public record, that activities taking place by the chairman’s companies have underpinned not only the loan and interest payments, but also that future profits from that transaction would go into Bury Football Club.”

Thomas said that the deal funded by the loan posed no risk to the club, claiming it was protected by a “600 per cent guarantee”.

“In other words,” he added. “There has been 600 per cent more collateral provided for the loan than the loan itself. That’s how much protected it has been.”

While the use of such loans – the interest rate of which Thomas and Day contested – sounds alarming, the Bury CEO has promised fans the day-to-day running of the club is not being underpinned by expensive credit.

“If you read the paperwork, the only legal charge on Gigg Lane is to the chairman’s personal investment in the club, which has always been declared since day one,” he said.

“His investment written into the accounts state that a credit facility of up to £2million was made available.

“Provisions have been put in place through other business ventures that more funding will be made available as and when is needed to make sure we can deliver the business plan over the next three or four years.”

And he added: “There will be losses shown in these accounts and probably next year’s accounts as well because you cannot make a negative situation positive in a very short space of time.

“So by using the club as an asset and investing in other non-football related projects, that is how the football club will start to make a profit.

“We are not here to spend silly money on transfer fees, we are not here to spend silly money on players’ wages.

“It is calculated and it is within a budget that is affordable.”

Part of the concerns put to Thomas by shareholders at the recent annual general meeting, held at the start of the month after being delayed since January, was that the club had still not provided them with an update on the financial accounts, 18 months after taking charge.

Thomas has since confirmed that a full report would be given at the next meeting, scheduled for January 29.