Chris Huhne faces £100,000 legal bill

Chris Huhne: Serving eight month prison sentence. Picture: Getty

A judge has still to decide how much the former politician should pay towards the costs of his points-swapping case, but a hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday heard his legal team had offered £25,000.

Huhne, who is serving an eight-month prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, appeared at the hearing from prison, with his partner, Carina Trimingham, and his father supporting him from the public gallery.

He and his former wife, Vicky Pryce, were both jailed last month after it emerged she had taken speeding points on his behalf a decade earlier.

Prosecutors are claiming a total of £108,541.15 from Huhne, who pleaded guilty in February after months of protracted attempts to have the case against him thrown out.

The court heard yesterday that Huhne’s legal team had offered to pay £25,000 towards the case.

However, prosecutor Andrew Edis, QC, insisted the six-figure claim was “just and reasonable”.

He told the court: “All of this occurred because Mr Huhne decided to do everything he could to try and get away with what he had done and gave in only at the last minute when defeat was inevitable.

“This was essentially predominantly caused by Mr Huhne’s decision to make two applications – first, to apply to dismiss on the grounds of insufficiency of evidence and secondly, to apply to stay the proceedings as an abuse of process.”

He said an “enormous amount of work” had been done by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), counsel and the police because of Huhne’s assertions.

Huhne’s barrister, John Kelsey-Fry, QC, said it was “simply unjust and unreasonable” to expect the former Liberal Democrat MP to pay what he described as “every single possible penny that anybody could think of”.

He went on: “In our view, a reasonable – indeed, arguably generous but reasonable – figure, which we would have been prepared to offer had the door not been closed on the day of sentence, would be £25,000.”

The CPS is seeking £48,695.56 from Pryce, 60, who was found guilty of perverting the course of justice after a retrial.

Her legal team are in the process of trying to agree how much the economist, who did not attend court yesterday, should be liable to pay.

The amounts could increase slightly to include the cost of yesterday’s hearing.

The judge, Mr Justice Sweeney is expected to make a ruling in the case next week.