An Austrian court has ordered that a bank robber be given back £51,000 ($82,146) that he stole 19 years ago.

Bank manager Otto Neuman stole £150,000 ($241,621) in cash - plus gold bars and gold coins - from his own branch in 1993.

After getting into financial difficulties, Neuman hired two accomplices to help him stage a fake robbery at Erste Bank in the Doebling district of Vienna.

By the time he was caught by the police, only £51,000 in cash could be salvaged, along with the gold. The rest of the money had already disappeared.

The gold was given to insurers, who had already compensated the bank for its loss. However, the cash has been at the Austrian Justice Ministry for almost two decades.

Neuman's lawyer Herbert Eichenseder confirmed that court officials got in touch with him recently and asked him to help return the stolen money to his client.

"I really didn't believe what the court were telling me, but I checked it and it was correct," Orange News quotes him as saying.

"I had to go into the archives in our cellar to find the details of the case as it was already 19 years old - and I managed to track down the man's details and contacted him to tell him the news.

"To say that he was surprised was an understatement, but he provided his bank account details and the money has now been transferred."

The bank had decided it had no claim to the money because their insurers provided full compensation for the robbery.

Source Court returns stolen money to bank robber