Britain's largest ever legal aid fraud case has ended today, after 22 members of the same Gloucestershire law firm were convicted of fiddling an estimated £8 million from the taxpayer.

Until today, legal restrictions have prevented the media from reporting how Tim Robinson, the head of the firm and once one of Britain's most high-profile solicitors, was jailed for seven years for masterminding the scam, and ordered to pay more than £1 million in compensation and costs.

Robinson, 60, has served his sentence while the enormously lengthy and complex case against his employees wound on at Bristol Crown Court.

He was freed in July, and was in court this morning to hear the judge lift the reporting restrictions and allow the full extent of his cheating finally to be made public.

The flamboyant lawyer is best known for representing Tracie Andrews, jailed for life in 1996 for stabbing her fiance Lee Harvey to death then trying to claim he had been killed in a road rage incident by a man with staring eyes. She became notorious after making tearful televised appeals for the non-existent killer to come forward.

The investigation into the law firm, Robinson's, began more than ten years ago in April 1993 and is thought to have cost several million pounds.

Robinson's offices were raided in January 1995. The Serious Fraud Office and three police forces took more than 3,000 witness statements and seized 21 tonnes of documents as they investigated the scam. Two whole floors of a police station had to be given over to storing and analysing the evidence.

The conspiracy involved employees at the firm, once one of the largest criminal defence practices in the country, claiming Legal Aid for millions of pounds' worth of work they did not do.

Clients would be asked to sign multiple copies of the green Legal Aid claim forms, and the firm would then submit fraudulent claims to the Legal Aid Board, billing for thousands of hours of work it had not done. Clerks told investigators that half or more of their claims were bogus.

Robinson, who lived in the exclusive village of Badgeworth, near Cheltenham, said during the investigation that there was "no basis" in the police's suspicions, and blamed the allegations on "spite and malice". He was described during his eight month trial as a "mini Maxwell".

He was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Bristol Crown Court in January 2001, and was released on parole this summer after serving half his sentence. He has been barred from practising law again.

A further 21 former employees at his Gloucestershire-based practice either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of the conspiracy in a total of five trials. Five were acquitted, and the judge ordered that charges should lie on the file against two more.

Details of the fraud could be reported for the first time today after reporting restrictions, which had been put in place to avoid prejudicing future court proceedings, were lifted by a judge.

This happened after the charges against the remaining defendant, Archibald Ross, were ordered to lie on the file after medical evidence showed that the trial was unlikely ever to go ahead.

It is not known exactly how much was defrauded from the Legal Aid Board, but estimates suggest it could have been as much as half the £17 million claimed by Robinson’s during the period investigated.

Andrew Gregg, a spokesman for the Law Society, said: "The whole profession regards Tim Robinson as a total and utter disgrace. We are ashamed of him."

Geoff Mountjoy, a spokesman for the Legal Services Commission which replaced the Legal Aid Board in 2000, said that the commission was extremely pleased that Robinson had been brought to justice. The legal aid system had been changed and no firm could commit a similar fraud again, he added.

"The Green Form scheme, which Mr Robinson and his employees used to defraud the legal aid fund, has been replaced," said Mr Mountjoy. "Nowadays, only solicitors' firms that have a contract with the LSC can do legal aid work."

The other defendants

Diane Morton, 48, senior lawyer and equity partner, jailed for three years for conspiracy to defraud

Howard Banton, 46, managing clerk, jailed for four years

Errol Pitter, 40, clerk, jailed for two-and-a-half-years for conspiracy to defraud

Patrick Price, 50, clerk, jailed for a year for conspiracy to defraud

Christine Noble, 39, clerk, jailed for a year

Keith Pengelly, 62, clerk, jailed for 18 months

Richard Hill, 55, clerk, believed to be original whistle-blower, jailed for 14 months

Paul Andrews, 34, a clerk, was jailed for 12 months.

Clive Randall, 59, Gerald Davies, 40, and Margaret Leith, 50, all clerks who pleaded guilty, given suspended sentences

Charges against Paul Smith and Archibald Ross lie on the file

Clive Staines, 42, Stephen Young, 45, Catherine Lewis, 39, and Dawn Pryce-Jones, 40, were all acquitted

George Neild, 60, acquitted in October

A total of ten other former employees pleaded guilty and were all given suspended sentences ranging from three months to a year.

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