A Co Antrim plumber has reignited demutualisation fears in the British building society, Bradford & Bingley, after he got a resolution accepted by the organisation to convert to a bank.

Mr Stephen Major, from Lambeg, said if 51 per cent of members voted in favour of the resolution, the society would have to table a formal resolution on conversion. The 2.5 million savers in Britain's second-biggest building society would stand to gain a windfall of at least £1,000 if there was an average payout of the society's assets, he said.

"I honestly think that even without the board members, between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of members will back it. An awful lot of carpetbaggers have got into Bradford & Bingley," he said.

The society has stopped accepting new savings accounts until after its annual general meeting on April 26th, when the resolution will be put to members.

Carpetbaggers are so-called because of the financial gain they hope to make by joining building societies prior to conversion.

Mr Major, a quantity surveyor who works as a plumber, has followed in the footsteps of the most well-known of carpetbaggers, Mr Michael Hardern, a former butler, whose resolution for Nationwide, the largest of the 71 remaining UK building societies, to demutualise was narrowly defeated last year.

Mr Major has held the account for the past two-and-ahalf years and believes 30 per cent of the society's members are made up of "carpetbaggers". "You just open an account in order to get financial gain." There was no particular advantage, he said, from being a saver with a building society as opposed to a bank. He had to get the support of a minimum 50 savers but got 70 in order for the resolution to be put before members.

Despite the board's opposition to conversion, he believed that there was a plan to convert in about five years, when the asset base had increased. Mr Major added that he had no savings in any other building society, including the Republic's two remaining ones, Irish Nationwide and EBS.