A Scottish quarry chief is digging deep to secure victory in a long-running battle with HMRC over a multimillion pound unpaid aggregates levy dispute.

British Aggregates Association (BAA) founder and managing director, Robert Durward, will champion the case of one of two companies at Lanark Sheriff Court this week in a bid to stop the collection of what they believe are unlawful taxes.

Durward, managing director of Cloburn Quarry in South Lanarkshire - one of the biggest in the UK - said the two firms hope to extend an interim interdict against HMRC until their marathon legal tussle is heard in the Court of Appeal in October.

Durward - who set up the BAA in 1999 three years before the levy was introduced in April 2002 - says six Scottish quarries have so far refused to pay around £10m since a March 2012 European General Court ruling against several elements of the tax.

He said HMRC has refused numerous offers to place the disputed money into a joint account until a resolution had been reached.

The £2 per tonne of rock, gravel and sand levy, was originally introduced as an environmental tax, and allowed several exemptions for items such as shale, clay and slate. But under European rules, such exceptions are viewed as 'state aid' and are banned unless justified by the founding principles of the tax scheme.

Durward says he now wants the taxman to hold off on collecting the levy until the legal spat has been thrashed out, something that has already happened in England. But through a peculiar quirk in Scottish law, HMRC is still able to issue summary warrants against companies refusing to cough up because they dispute the legality of the tax.

He branded HMRC's behaviour as 'arrogant and high-handed' and claimed the levy had led to the collapse of Skye Aggregates which fell into liquidation owing a big chunk of its debts to HMRC.