QC lived hand to mouth after income dried up Legal aid changes led to crisis and fine for not paying tax
AHIGH-PROFILE barrister who worked on some of Birmingham’s biggest court cases said he was left living “hand to mouth” and unable to pay his tax bills on time by legal aid cuts.
Timothy Raggatt QC was fined more than £13,000 after being caught in “a perfect storm” by the cuts, a costly divorce and his bank complaining about his £200,000 overdraft facility.
He blamed “government cuts to legal aid” for his failure to pay tax on his six-figure income promptly between 2012 and 2014.
The QC appealed against the penalties and now a judge has expressed “considerable sympathy for the predicament that Mr Raggatt found himself in”.
But, refusing to overturn the fines, Judge Timothy Herrington would not accept Mr Raggatt had a “reasonable excuse” for delays in paying his tax.
The barrister told the Upper Tribunal the meltdown in his income caused by legal aid cuts coincided with his expensive divorce.
As part of a “clean break” from his exwife in 2012, he had to pay her a substantial lump sum and annual maintenance.
That came just as his legal aid income was being slashed and his bank started to call in his £200,000 overdraft facility.
His bank “stopped honouring standing orders and other payments” on his account in 2014 and he had to move to another bank.
Mr Raggatt, who has appeared in many high profile trials during a 40-year career, said he later brought his finances under control by diversifying his practice.
But he told the tribunal that “for around 18 months he had in effect been living hand to mouth” due to “events outside his control”.
Cuts in the legal aid budget lay at the Timothy Raggatt QC prosecuted the case against five men charged with the New Year 2003 murders of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare in Aston.
He also represented the Crown in the trial of 12 men charged over mob violence which erupted at Birmingham Airport between alleged members of rival biker gangs the Hell’s Angels and the Outlaws.
And he was involved in the case of John Cannan who is serving life for the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol in October 1987 and other offences. Cannan, from Sutton Coldfield, is the only suspect in the murder of estate agent, Suzy Lamplugh, who vanished in July 1986. heart of his financial difficulties and “he described it as a ‘perfect storm’ which could not have been foreseen.”
He said legal aid cuts started in 2008, got “much worse” in 2010 and “much worse again” in 2012 – leading to a 40 per cent overall cut in his professional income.
Judge Herrington said HMRC’s refusal to give him more time to pay the two tax bills “might be considered harsh in the circumstances”.
During four decades as a lawyer “there had never been any suggestion of his not attempting to pay his tax liabilities”.
But the judge added Mr Raggatt had “a long-established practice of paying irregular lump sum instalments to HMRC as and when he could afford to do so”.
And he “could have been more prudent in creating sufficient reserves” from good years so that he could pay his tax bills during lean periods.
Judge Herrington expressed “considerable sympathy” for Mr Raggatt, but dismissed his appeal against late payment penalties totalling £13,345.