FORMER Northern Rock boss Adam Applegarth is making a career comeback after becoming an adviser to a US private equity firm, it was reported today.

Mr Applegarth - who led the Newcastle-based lender to the brink of collapse and eventual nationalisation - has joined Apollo Management as a senior adviser, according to The Times newspaper.

The move comes nearly two years after he quit Northern Rock with an £760.000 payoff.

Mr Applegarth has kept a low profile since the onset of the credit crunch in August 2007 wrecked Northern Rock's high-risk business model and forced the bank to seek emergency help from the Bank of England.

At the height of the housing boom the former building society was behind a fifth of new mortgage loans - but rather than funding them through deposits it used wholesale money markets which seized up in the crunch.

As an adviser to Apollo rather than a director, he does not have to be approved by the Financial Services Authority.

Apollo - which was unavailable for comment - specialises in buying up under-performing loans at large discounts.

Sources told the newspaper that Mr Applegarth could advise the buy-out firm on an acquisition of the bad loans in Northern Rock's mortgage book.

The private equity company is best known in the UK for buying the Countrywide estate agent chain in 2007 but is also a major shareholder in US casino owner Harrah's Entertainment.

Other bankers closely linked with the crisis have also sought to rebuild their careers. Andy Hornby, the head of HBOS at the time of its rescue by Lloyds, has become chief executive of Alliance Boots, but ex-Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin has yet to find a new role.