Oldham ordered to pay full cost of failed trading standards prosecution

A judge at Manchester Crown Court has ordered Oldham council to pay the full costs of the defendants to its failed prosecution of kitchen manufacturer Vance Miller and his business associates.

Last month, Judge Jonathan Foster QC dismissed the case brought against Vance Miller, a fitted kitchen supplier whom trading standards officers accused of passing off chipboard units as solid wood, ruling that Oldham council had “abused the process of court”. Charges against Mr Miller's co-defendants, Nichola Brodie, Sadiya Hussain and Alan Ford were also dismissed .

The case followed a raid on Miller's offices by trading standards officers in 2006, backed up by 130 police officers. However, the judge said that the prosecution was “misconceived” and not based on reliable evidence and described the raid on Miller's premises as “disproportionate and oppressive”, the Manchester Evening News reported.

The judge pointed to the use of a prosecution witness who had attempted to blackmail Mr Miller and buy his business for £1 and the suppression of an expert witness report commissioned by the council which concluded that Mr Miller's cabinets “could reasonably be described as solid wood”. He also said that he was “unable to rely” on the evidence of Oldham's head of trading standards, Tony Allen, whose “initial desire to close the business down coloured his thinking...and led him to lose his objectivity”.

The judge said: “The whole process was unfair to Vance Miller, his business and the co-defendants. The process is an abuse of the procedures of court. Oldham Trading Standards were overwhelmed by the volume of material they recovered. In those circumstances it was unsurprising that the process of disclosure was inadequate.”

The case has been adjourned until April pending clarification of the defendants' costs. Oldham Council is considering an appeal against the decision to award costs, but has said that it will not appeal the original judgment.

Meanwhile, Mr Miller has said that he will not sue Oldham Council for compensation over the case if the council gives him Oldham Town Hall, which has been derelict since 1995. He told the BBC that he would turn the Victorian building into a youth centre.