Liberal Democrat MP and Former Scotland Secretary Alistair Carmichael faces a legal bill of about £150,000 after the judges threw out his case last Monday regarding the expenses in the Frenchgate case. He also narrowly survived a bid to have him ousted as MP for Shetland and Orkney.
According to The National, four of his constituents namely Cary Welling, Fiona Grahame, Phaemie Matheson, and Tim Morrison (who are also known as the Orkney Four), brought a landmark case against him last year. It was during a rare Scottish sitting of an Election Court in Edinburgh and was under the Representation of the People Act 1983, Section 106.
In the said election court, judges Lady Paton and Lord Matthews rejected Carmichael's application in having his legal costs conferred to the Orkney Four, who also challenged his election victory after he lied about the leak of a civil service memo. The memo erroneously claimed the First Minister Nicola Sturge secretly wanting David Cameron to win during the general elections in 2015, The Guardian reported.
With this, the two judges ruled out that both parties need to meet their own legal costs. In the case of the Orkney Four, they have successfully paid their legal costs that amounted to roughly £185,000. This was after they organized an online fundraising drive that earned nearly £210,000.
But for Carmichael, his crowdfunding campaign produced only £14,000. This means that he must pay or find alternative benefactors to sponsor what is left of his bill, which amounts to £150,000.
Scotsman further stated that Morrison, one of the Orkney Four, welcomed the result of the judges. He was very relieved that the four of them have been on the right side of the conspiracy.
Moreover, they would thus end up paying for Carmichael's expenses as well as the punitive element if ever they have been wronged. But luckily, the court has taken exactly the opposite view.
