A court has ordered a Galway businessman to pay Bank of Scotland $5 a week – on a $100,000 debt.

It will take Gareth Duffy 400 years to repay the loan after the court heard an appeal from the bank.

Duffy told Judge Geoffrey Browne that he owes a total of over $5million to various banks.

Bank of Scotland had asked the judge to award them a $1200 monthly payment from Duffy.

Instead Judge Browne ordered the cash-strapped businessman to pay just $5-a-week and remarked: “The bank will be around for a long time.”

The Connacht Tribune reports that Ballyglunin man Duffy told Tuam Civil Court that the banks pressurized him to borrow almost $6million and he still owes them $4.2 million.

Duffy told the court: “Up to 2009 I didn’t owe a bob to anyone. Then the banks pursued me and pushed me into borrowing about €4.6 million. I still owe €3.5 million.”