'Legal Aid' Fraud Trial Ruling Is Overturned

By Mark White, Home Affairs Correspondent, Court of Appeal

A legal move by the Prime Minister's barrister brother to halt a multimillion-pound fraud trial because of legal aid cuts has been overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Three Appeal Court judges quashed the order, made earlier this month at London's Southwark Crown Court, to throw out the case because the defendants could not find sufficiently experienced barristers to take on their defence.

David Cameron's older brother, Alexander Cameron QC, successfully argued that the accused men would be unable to get a fair trial because of the failure to find barristers of "sufficient competence" to fight for them.

The case is at the centre of a furious row between the Ministry of Justice and the legal profession over deep cuts to the legal aid budget.

Many barristers in England and Wales are refusing to take on complex and long-running court cases because of 30% cuts to their fees.

Delivering their ruling at the Court of Appeal, judge Sir Brian Leveson said the row was standing in the way of justice and he urged Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to work with the legal profession to try to resolve the current stand-off.

Alexander Cameron QC took on the case for free

The trial, which involves the alleged mis-selling of land to members of the public, is classed as a very high-cost case, because of the length of time barristers and their legal teams would have to spend preparing for the case and the expected length of the trial.

The fraud case, known as operation Cotton, included 46,030 pages of evidence and 864,000 lines of spreadsheet data.

Defence solicitors had contacted 69 barrister chambers in their efforts to find suitable representation.

By January 15 just one QC had indicated their willingness to take on the case, but then withdrew the next day.

The trial judge at Southwark Crown Court, Anthony Leonard, halted the case on May 1 and ruled there was no reason to think the defendants would be able to find suitably-qualified barristers to represent them if the case was adjourned,

Judge Leonard's ruling meant other major trials were also at risk of collapsing, including the biggest insider dealing case ever seen in the UK.

The Court of Appeal reversed Judge Leonard's ruling and ordered that "the proceedings on this indictment be resumed in the Crown Court at Southwark".

Sir Brian Leveson said:  "We are not saying that there could not come a time when it may be appropriate to order that this indictment be stayed: that time, however,

remains very much in the future and problems about representation will have to have developed considerably before such an exceptional order could be justified."

After the ruling, a spokesman for the Financial Conduct Authority, which mounted the appeal, said he welcomed the court's decision.

In a statement, he said: "The FCA is committed to pursuing criminal action in appropriate cases and is pleased that this case can now proceed towards trial."

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