Expenses cheats forced to pay back Legal Aid
15 December 2011 by Scunny Independent News
Today Mr Justice Saunders at Southwark Crown Court decreed that four former Labour MPs should be asked to pay back what amounts to a total of £250,000 in legal aid.
The four MP's have been named as:
- David Chaytor
- Jim Devine
- Elliot Morley
- Eric Illsley
They were all prosecuted earlier this year after it emerged that between the four of them they had cheated the taxpayer out of £72,000 by submitting fraudulent parliamentary expenses claims.
it is believed that the total legal aid bill for all four cases came to a total of £244,130.01
Sources have told us that in cases where there is legal aid, if the defendant is found guilty the aid has to be repaid, so there's nothing special or untoward with this.
Update 17:10
According to reports on the BBC news web site, Elliot Morley has had the largest bill of all incurring legal aid of £56,181 through his trial. Readers may recall that Elliot did however argue that he should not be prosecuted on grounds of parliamentary
privilege. It would emerge that this particular aspect of his legal aid bill will be paid for by the tax payer as Justice Saunders upheld his argument that some of these costs should be publicly covered.
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Comments
never mind them paying it back, the question should be why should someone with their income and wealth get legal aid in the first place?
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