Fraud compensation halved
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• The Court of Appeal has slashed the amount of compensation to be paid by former Payauto director Patrick Owen who was convicted of a £29,000 VAT fraud last April.
It cut compensation from £9,000 to £4,500, and quashed an order demanding that Owen pay £6,000 prosecution costs.
Lord Justice McCowan said it was clear that someone else had been involved in the fraud who had escaped altogether. He said the trial judge, despite little information, had concluded that Owen would be able to pay the compensation.
Since the hearing, Owen had found work and, although he was earning quite a lot of money, he still had to live and pay a mortgage.
McCowan was worried that if Owen was forced to pay more compensation than he could reasonably afford, he might turn back to crime.
Owen has been ordered to pay the lower compensation at a rate of £125 a week which still means it will take him about 21/2 years to pay it off.