The mother of a solider awarded £285,000 for horrific injuries sustained in a landmine blast today criticised the Ministry of Defence after it emerged that an Iraqi man accidentally shot by a British soldier will receive £2 million in compensation.

Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, 23, lost both his legs and suffered 37 other injuries when his Land Rover was blown up in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province while serving with the 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery in 2006. The soldier, from Doncaster, spent three months in a coma.

Lance Bombardier Parkinson was initially awarded only £152,000. But after a campaign launched by his family, the Ministry of Defence announced in October that £285,000 would be paid to the most seriously wounded soldiers.

His mother, Diane Dernie, said at the time that £285,000 would not buy a property or “make suitable adaptations” for disabled soldiers.

It emerged last night that the young Iraqi – who cannot be named for legal reasons – will receive over seven times the amount awarded to her son after suffering severe spinal injuries which left him paralysed.

Ms Dernie said: “It’s not that we don’t think that anyone deserves compensation if they are shot, but it’s hard to see why the Ministry of Defence can give all this money to non-military personnel but doesn’t see fit to look after its own.

“As time goes on we at the sharp end can see how little the £285,000 will stretch. It all goes back to the same old story - there's money for civilian workers who threaten to sue, but for those in the Armed Forces injured, they try to get rid of them as quickly and as cheaply as they can.”

The two payouts are likely to reopen the controversy over the compensation levels for wounded service personnel.

There were also fears among opposition MPs that it could set a precedent, opening the way for further big compensation claims by Iraqis against the British Government.

The MoD insisted that the case was a one-off.

“It is not a precedent, it is an exceptional case. It is not expected that there are any other cases of such severity,” a spokesman said yesterday.

The MoD rejected comparisons with the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme for injured troops, which offers a maximum lump sum payment of £285,000. The spokesman said that it was a no-fault scheme, which also provided a lifetime income for those who were covered.

In the case of the Iraqi man, the high payout reflected both the costs of caring for him for the rest of his life and the fact that the MoD had accepted that the shot which injured him was a “negligent discharge”.

The man was wounded in September 2003 when a British soldier – one of a group who he had befriended – accidentally dropped his gun and the weapon went off. He subsequently moved to the UK where he began legal action through the British courts. The final settlement is awaiting a further High Court hearing.

The award is far higher than anything paid to Iraqis who made compensation claims against the British through the Iraqi courts.

Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vince Cable said that other Iraqis may now try to take action through the courts in the UK.

“The Government claims that this is a completely unique case, but it is very difficult to believe that that is the case,” he told said.

“If Iraqis were able to get access to British courts, they would clearly be entitled to much higher levels of compensation, based on this precedent. The costs of that could be very, very considerable indeed, adding to all the other costs of the Iraq war.”

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