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MPs warn against Miller appeal
Date published: 16 March 2010
OLDHAM’S three MPs are urging the council to drop their appeal against a judge’s ruling in the doomed Vance Miller trial.
Judge Jonathan Foster QC threw the council’s fraud trial against kitchen trader Vance Miller out of court and ruled that the local authority foot the defendant’s costs.
The council then decided to appeal this decision in a bid to reduce the impact of the case on tax payers.
Labour MP’s Michael Meacher, Phil Woolas and David Heyes have written to District Auditor Mark Heap to express their concern. The letter says the MPs believe the appeal is an “ill thought out exercise” that could result in a “further considerable waste of public money”.
It states: “We ask you to consider ruling against the appeal on the grounds that local tax payers’ money is already exposed to a liability of £5 million. Therefore, it is not justified to expose the tax payer to further significant risk of even greater liability considering the council’s case is extremely weak.”
Comments
Wow, for once MP's are trying to save the taxpayer money. The council can throw money into this hole as much as they won't, it'll get deeper and they won't claw anything back, whether they had a case or not, it was a farce and they need to chalk it down to experience.
they wont listen! sykes and co never do! they've avoided answering all questions on this subject since it all happened! they know they're untouchable!
how can the still be getting away with this? they shouldnt be resigning! they should be chased out of oldham for good and told never to return!
if they want to act like cowboys then they should be treated like cowboys!
Keith thanks for the comments but lets not loose sight of who started this one it was not the current council leader, he is just taking the flack while Labour hide. I do not believe that the police would have taken the action they did only on the Councils say so (unless they are all in the funny hand shake brigade) Labour should stand up and be counted for their part in the fiasco so lets not forget this (of to the Doctors now that’s twice I have defended the council)
so why is the MP from down south suddenly so concerned about this case...
... were was he in 2006 when the case was started by his Labour run council cronies...
... of course that was after the election, time for an holiday for three or four years until he needs to campaign again for the next election...
...of course it is this year that there is going to be an election...
...surprise surprise he has had to make that long train journey up to Oldham...
...2006 was the time to say not to go ahead
Celsus_Civis has a point. The MPs suddenly have a lot to say now the trial went wrong. I don't remember them saying anything before. I expect they would have taken the credit if it had gone right.
Is that right that Labour started it all off by the way?
Go ahead with the appeal I say, throw even more taxpayers money away, and make sure that nobody in Oldham votes for you ever again. Is this interest from MPs anything to do with a general election I wonder.
I don't think any member of the previous Labour administration will deny that the issue of Miller started on their watch. The complaints nationally, being collated by Oldham Trading Standards required investigation. The question to be answered is when did the case go past the point of no return and who was responsible for scrutinising the quality of the evidence at that time.
As I understand it, the members of the previous legislation are more tha
The last sentence of the previous comment repeated and completed.
It is my understanding that the members of the previous legislation are content for their role in the issue to be scrutinised.
What’s the point in going ahead with the appeal and throwing away even more tax payer’s money.. Even if they do get all the money back, they’ll only go ahead and throw it away on another case that they’ll never win, and we will have to pay for it.
Have Your Say
Interesting delboy & sykes trying to riddle out of the farce they created at the taxpayer expense. What every happened to accepting they got it wrong and stop looking for some else to foot the blame – JUST RESIGN WE DON’T NEED THIS LEVEL OF INCOMPETENCE
By Keith @ 16/03/2010 13:02:51