Ex-prisoner may win £5,000 in legal aid over voting case

A FORMER prisoner who launched a fight to give inmates the vote is set to receive more than £5,000 in legal aid, The Scotsman has learned.

William Smith, a convicted drug dealer, took legal action after he was barred from voting in the 2003 Holyrood elections.

The case last month led three Court of Session judges to rule that banning prisoners from voting breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The case has triggered a flood of further legal challenges which threaten to disrupt May's Scottish Parliament elections.

More than 100 compensation claims from prisoners are waiting in the wings and experts fear the total damages award could reach several million pounds.

The First Minister, Jack McConnell, has insisted the elections will go ahead and claimed Westminster would be liable for any compensation bill.

But the prospect of massive amounts of legal aid being spent on prisoners fighting their case still looms large.

Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, has revealed in a parliamentary answer that Smith is likely to receive more than 5,000 in legal aid, once his costs are added up and submitted to the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

The revelation has provoked anger from politicians who attacked an "abuse" of the system.

The SNP justice spokesman, Kenny MacAskill, said: "Legal aid is not a bottomless pit. It comes from taxpayers' pockets and should go where necessary and needed.

"It sticks in the craw of hard-working Scots to see their cash fund legal debates by convicted drug dealers, not the victims of crime, domestic violence or accidents. This is an abuse of the legal aid system and the cost rubs salt in the wound of the suggestion that convicted felons get the vote."

Margaret Mitchell, the Scottish Tories' justice spokeswoman, said: "I think the First Minister must re-assess the potential of this challenge, which would never have come to fruition if the Executive hadn't rushed to implement ECHR into Scots law.

"There could potentially be an impact on the public purse and it's impossible to quantify how much. It's another reason to fundamentally review the rules on legal aid - I don't think the public will be pleased that it is being used in this way."

A blanket ban on inmates taking part in ballots was declared unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights following a case in England in 2005. Westminster vowed to change the system, but nothing has yet been done.

Tony Kelly, a lawyer whose firm is acting on behalf of the prisoners, said the issue of legal aid would not have arisen if the government had acted sooner.

"This is only an issue because the government chose to do nothing," he said.

A spokesman for the legal aid board said it had a duty to award legal aid if the case passed a "reasonableness" test.