Ex-Deputy questions “wasted” taxpayer money after court case dropped

Friday 20 July 2018

A former politician has questioned how much taxpayer money was “wasted” after a court case against him initiated nearly two years ago was finally dropped yesterday morning.

Former Deputy Nick Le Cornu, who recently ran for election in St. Helier, was due to face a trial in the Magistrate’s Court for perverting the course of justice yesterday.

He had been charged alongside his wife, Irina, a former accountant at Verite Trust, who was alleged to have breached Data Protection Law. Both denied the allegations.

Having originally come to court in October 2016, with Mr Le Cornu being called back in to be released and re-released on bail on several occasions, the ongoing legal proceedings entered their 21^stmonth this week.

Pictured: Mr Le Cornu said he felt an element of "vindication" after the trial was dropped.

But on the morning that Mr Le Cornu’s trial was due to begin yesterday, prosecutors decided to drop the case against him because they deemed that they did not have a reasonable chance of success.

“The prosecution has been dropped as parts of a pre-trial ruling given by the Assistant-Magistrate made pursuing the case to a successful conviction impossible,” a Law Officers’ Department spokesperson said. 

In an interview with Express just moments after the result, Mr Le Cornu commented he was happy with the result, but stated he was concerned about the taxpayers’ funds that may have been lost during the pursuit of his case.

“There’s no doubt vindication comes out of it, but it’s very sad that probably £100,000 has been wasted in public money in the prosecution of my wife and I to no avail, and really charges that should have never been brought.”

He said that he felt particularly targeted as “a candidate of the political left” and that the legal proceedings against him had ruined his political campaign to become a Deputy in St. Helier District No 1. Of the eight people that stood, Mr Le Cornu polled third from bottom with 364 votes in the May vote.

Pictured: Mr Le Cornu said the ongoing court case damaged his campaign to become a St. Helier Deputy.

“These [charges] relate to matters back in 2016. The Police waited for over a year… only to decide to charge in November 2017 just before an election. Of course, throughout the election period the media had articles every time I was re-bailed... It lost me votes in the election," he stated.

Mr Le Cornu added that he was now concerned that he would not be awarded his legal costs following the case’s conclusion – a potential move he branded “outrageous”.

He said that his experience of going through the court system before having his case dropped led him to believe that “the ‘Jersey Way’ is alive and well”, but that he doubted that current States Members would take his experience “seriously” or question what it means for “civil liberties in the island”.

The total legal and time costs incurred by the prosecuting authority, the Law Officers’ Department, during the case may never be fully known.

The Department is not bound by the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, meaning that the full spend is only likely to be released if the department chooses to do so.