Neil Sharpely 10:30 - 02 October 2003

A Former coroner and solicitor accused of deception offences has walked free from court after the charges against him were thrown out.

Neil Sharpley (52), who was once the coroner for Louth, was alleged to have obtained £47,000 from a client's estate and used it for his own purposes. He had been due to stand trial at Leicester Crown Court this week.

But the proceedings did not reach the stage of swearing in a jury to hear the case.

After three days of legal argument Judge Ian Collis ruled that Mr Sharpley could not receive a fair trial due to an "abuse of process" in bringing the case to court.

Abuse of process is deemed to have taken place when something is judged to be so unfair or wrong with the prosecution that the case cannot continue.

The individual facts of each case are considered when deciding if the method used to bring the case to court was unfair.

Mr Sharpley, of Westgate, Louth, had denied two offences of obtaining a money transfer by deception from his client John Lewis between February and June 1997.