Magistrates who ordered a gas engineer to pay £22,000 within a “clearly irrational” 28 days were following “standard practice” which was unlawful, the High Court has ruled.

Judges at Guildford Magistrates Court had ordered a gas engineer – identified only as “RAI” in the High Court judgment – ​​to pay the sum in compensation after admitting benefits fraud. He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs totaling £6,067.88.

However, High Court Justice Thornton overturned the order after hearing the applicant’s “undisputed assertion that his disposable income before loan repayments was £250 per month”.

“Given the information available to the magistrates about the applicant’s resources, it was clearly irrational to demand payment of £22,000 from him within 28 days,” the judge said.

In their response to the case presented, the magistrates explained that their intention was not for the applicant to pay the amount due within 28 days but for him to pay in installments according to a repayment plan to be determined by the fines office. .

“We did not expect the claimant to be able to repay the compensation and costs in one go, and repayment may have taken some time,” they said. “Our intention was for the applicant to contact the fines office and arrange a suitable repayment plan at a rate they could afford. This is common practice in the Surrey and Sussex local justice region.

But Judge Thornton, in a judgment delivered on Tuesday, said: “The practice adopted by the magistrates in this regard is unlawful. It is wrong to set the amount of compensation without taking into account the installments likely to be paid by the offender and the period during which these installments must be paid, but rather to leave these matters to be resolved by the fines office.

The judge ordered the case listed for review by a differently constituted court.