Legal aid cuts threaten further trials

A further eight complex criminal trials could suffer the fate of the fraud trial which collapsed at Southwark Crown Court with a loss of about £10m.

Barristers are refusing to take Very High Cost Cases (VHCCs) due to 30% cuts in legal aid fees. Last week, Judge Leonard QC stayed the proceedings in R v Crawley (AKA Operation Cotton), an alleged complex land scam, noting that the defence had contacted 70 sets of chambers with competent barristers, including at the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh and the Bar of Northern Ireland, with no success.

Phil Smith, partner at Tuckers Solicitors, who was acting for one of the defendants, says: “There’s an additional eight trials due in the coming months which are deemed VHCC and which are likely to experience similar problems with barrister uptake.

“The government had been banking on barristers’ resilience weakening but it hasn’t. There is a distinct possibility that the same thing will happen again. 

“The Financial Conduct Authority prosecution probably cost about £10m, serious charges were brought and it went to trial. The prosecution had two QCs and two junior barristers, and the defence side had none. We instructed Alex Cameron QC [brother of the Prime Minister] pro bono to argue that the defendants could not get a fair trial.

“It’s difficult to see how the situation is going to improve. The government tried to set up a Public Defender Service but they didn’t get very far, they only have six silks. 

“The public has a right to be absolutely outraged by this. It was an extremely serious and complex case, and where cases like this are affected by the legal aid cuts you have to think that’s reflective of a policy gone wrong.”

Leonard J declined to grant an adjournment until January 2015 since there was “no realistic prospect” that sufficient barristers would be found by then. 

The trial was expected to last at least three months.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said a QC could receive about £100,000, and a junior barrister £60,000, for the case, and that the Public Defender Service had a number of qualified advocates.