THE former boss of Northern Rock used company security guards to stop staff scratching his Aston Martin, it will be claimed in a television documentary tonight.

Adam Applegarth, who left Northern Rock after presiding over the first run on a British bank for more than a century, is said to have posted guards each morning and afternoon to keep workers away from his £150,000 sports car.

The claims will be made in a Dispatches programme to be broadcast at 8pm tonight on Channel Four.

The programme looks at how some of Britain’s bankers helped take the economy to the brink of ruin, triggering thousands of job losses.

According to the programme, the former chief executive bought the silver Aston Martin, as well as a Ferrari for his wife, before selling some of his shares in the bank.

The show says the Aston Martin was regularly parked in the No 1 space in the VIP car park at the bank’s headquarters in Gosforth, Newcastle.

The claim is made by Dennis Grainger, 63, who was a finance manager at the bank for nine years and who now leads a shareholder action group fighting for compensation following the bank’s collapse.

He told Dispatches: “There was a shortcut between the staff car park and the office, but we were not allowed to take it because that would have meant walking through the executive car park and past the rear of the Aston Martin.

“Every morning and afternoon there was a security guard stationed behind the car to make sure people kept to the pavement.

A Northern Rock spokesman said: “This suggestion is not something the company recognises.”

Mr Applegarth, who in 2001 at the age of 39 became the company’s youngest chief executive, received a payoff of more than £1m and has a pension fund worth £2.6m.

He was the tenth-highest public sector earner in the country, with an annual salary of £785,000.

■ Mr Applegarth could not be contacted last night.