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Lawyers, academics set out ways to prevent abuse of new govt office for legal aid
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Lawyers and academics said legal aid cannot depend on moral outrage.
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SINGAPORE - Think of a recipient of legal aid and the image of somebody who is impecunious comes to mind. But the experience elsewhere has shown free legal representation has sometimes gone to multi-millionaires who own multiple homes.
Take tycoon Virendra Rastogi, who was jailed in Britain in 2008 for running an international metals trading scam. He owned a £6 million (S$10.6 million) home in London and many properties in India, and was driven to court every day by a chauffeur. Yet British taxpayers paid for his legal defence, which came up to £5.17 million, because his assets were frozen.
