FORMER Gurkha Hari Thapa was last night celebrating a back pay deal estimated to be worth in the region of £90,000.

And, Mr Thapa said, the out-of-court deal struck with the Ministry of Defence has put an end to five years' of heartache.

Mr Thapa, 40, who lives in Hollybush, Cwmbran with his wife Nicola, will receive his money in the next two weeks.

He said: "It's a nice Christ-mas present. I am so delighted that the Army have finally paid me simply what I had a right to receive in the first place.

"It's been five years and I could not plan anything. I have had the case over my head. "I resent the MoD for what they did, but not the Army itself. It's the pen pushers that caused the pressure."

Mr Thapa, now a security guard at Cardiff University, revealed he had felt like giving up his fight for back pay a number of times.

He said: "The last time was last month. I felt I wasn't getting anywhere. I had to go to London to see my lawyers.

"I got there and I just felt like giving up.

"But there was just something inside me saying 'go on'. I found the training I received helped me fight."

Mrs Thapa, a nurse, said the case had caused a lot of stress for the family, including her daughters Katie, 13, and Tamzeng, three and a half.

She said: "It's been stressful for my mother who's 76, as she's had to look after our baby who's a handful.

"It's been difficult for the children because we haven't been able to plan anything. All we have done is go to work and concentrate on the case. Nearly everything else came second."

Mr Thapa was born in Hampshire and has a British passport. His father, Warrant Officer Chandra Thapa, was a Gurkha and died in action in Borneo in 1964.

And Hari Thapa served with the Gurkhas between 1983 and 1998.

In 1998, Mr Thapa, backed by the Commission for Racial Equality, brought a claim of race discrimination against the MoD alleging he was unfairly paid only around 60% of what an identical British soldier was paid.

Last week, a Cardiff employment tribunal ruled that it had no jurisdiction to consider Mr Thapa's pay claim.

The MoD had argued the Race Relations Act 1976 did not apply to Mr Thapa because we worked outside Great Britain for about 80% of his 15 years' service.

But despite that, yesterday the MoD agreed to pay Mr Thapa an amount equivalent to all his back pay for his 15 years' service in the Brigade of Gurkhas.

An MoD spokesman refused to comment on how the settlement would affect any other cases, adding: "We both agreed to settle.

"We note the fact this case is unique and the fact it is unique is because Mr Thapa is a British citizen."

As part of the agreement reached, Mr Thapa says he will also receive medals not normally awarded to Gurkhas.

They include medals for serving in Korea, Hong Kong, the United Nations, and medals for good conduct and long service.