Court win for judge in crofting cash fight

The move from Yorkshire did not work out when Graham Manchester, a former district judge in West Yorkshire, found he could not make ends meet herding cows on North Uist.

He and his family quit their new crofthouse, for which they were awarded a 11,500 Crofters Commission grant, and moved back to Yorkshire.

But the 58-year-old, of Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, did not notify the commission of the change despite a condition of the grant being that he or his family "occupy" the house as their main residence for the next 15 years.

A Scottish court heard the purpose of the grants is for "the retention of population in the crofting areas".

In 2007, the Crofters Commission discovered the situation and in August 2008 it sent a notice for repayment of a proportion of the grant – understood to be about 8,500 – as Mr Manchester was no longer permanently resident on the croft.

But the judge, who sits on immigration cases in Bradford, claimed the notice for repayment was invalid and the house was still his main residence.

The court was told he had kept up his interest in his rented croft and got another crofter to look after his six Highland cows. His wife Victoria returned to the property in January, and now works locally, and he plans to follow as soon as their Yorkshire home is sold.

Using his own legal skills and those of a crofting law expert, he fought the repayment order at a hearing at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court in January.

A judgment by Sheriff John Newall has now revealed the judge has won his case on a legal technicality, relating to errors in the dating of the notice of repayment.

While it was clear none of the family had lived permanently at the croft between the summer of 2004 and January 2010, the sheriff said: "Mr Manchester did not intend to leave the island to work at the time he made the application. I am in no doubt there was no intention on his part to seek to fund a second home from the grant."