THE owner of Huddersfield’s Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casino has landed the jackpot.

Rank Group is celebrating a £154m windfall from the taxman after winning a rebate on its VAT payments.

Rank, which owns the leisure complex at Folly Hall, has been repaid £74.8m in tax dating back to between 1973 and 1996 by HM Revenue and Customs following a long legal dispute.

It is also due to receive a further £79.5m in interest later this month.

Rank had expected to get about £65m plus interest under the rebate.

The gaming group has already received £112.3m in payments from HMRC relating to separate claims after a series of court rulings.

But HMRC has lodged an appeal against the decisions, which will be heard this year by the European Court of Justice.

If HMRC successfully overturns the rulings, Rank will have to give the money back.

Rank first began pursuing its tax claim in 2006 and put in a series of legal claims dating back to 1973 after it claimed its amusement machines had been taxed differently to other equivalent forms of gambling.