Weighing the cost of trading standards fraudster

Four local councils, Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley, know to their cost that 13m had to be found to balance the books that Mr Buckley left behind.

There are also the costs for the long-running criminal and council investigations into the scandal, along with the finances needed to re-organise the service.

But the total damage done by Mr Buckley is almost certainly impossible to calculate, because it damaged the international reputation of Britain as the provider of metrology – the science of weights and measures.

It is used to measure items such as weights scales in shops, but private businesses also have diverse needs for similar services. In this highly specialised industry Britain remains a world leader, attracting a significant amount of trade globally.

Mr Buckley's actions damaged the UK industry by affecting the financial health of companies offering the same services as his trading standards unit and also the international reputation of this country, known for its excellence in that field.

Analyst David Whyke, who has wide experience in the industry, said: "There was a number of labs which had a very, very difficult financial decade with this character pushing prices down to non-cost effective levels.

"I believe one weighbridge company had to pack up and make people redundant.

"After things became public, the hit to confidence in the UK was considerable."

Mr Whyke said it was an important industry supplying services across the world and the UK overall was affected.

There were also suspicions within the domestic market that some of the work supposedly done by Mr Buckley had in fact never happened, Mr Buckley charging relatively low fees and simply issuing certificates.

As a result, some organisations ended up having double checks carried out, said Mr Whyke.

"It was a constant source of discussion at meetings. People in the business were talking of the same thing. He was just wiping out their trade," he said.

On one occasion, the charge for measuring weights for a weighbridge would not have covered the cost of carriage to Sheffield, regardless of the price for cleaning, painting, recalibrating and returning them.

Other officials within the trading standards community had private concerns that the figures for the South Yorkshire operation did not appear to stack up properly, but none raised their concerns officially.

The decision to start a Freedom of Information campaign for the truth about the trading standards department was made because it became apparent Mr Buckley was intending to extend his field of business further.

Had he done so successfully, and unchallenged, it could have put other rivals, operating in legitimate conditions, at risk.

"I wish no man ill, but I confess the demise of Mike Buckley solved an awful lot of problems," said Mr Whyke.