I'm sorry - I've obviously been more than usually obtuse in the phrasing of this question.

when I wrote that the directory is named $scalar I meant that the scalar $scalar had interpolated properly and had been given its correct name. Thus if $scalar=1000 , the directory would be found at /path/1000

As for deleting the 'phantom' directories - the problem is that the (Unix) server states that they don't exist! I can see them via my ftp client.