Fees paid to a top British lawyer who assisted Government in fighting the GoldenEye property case almost matched the Solicitor General’s annual salary.

News of the $125,212 payment to Professor Jeffrey Jowell emerged this week through a parliamentary question tabled by Shadow Minister of Justice, John Barritt. Mr. Barritt said the case — which resulted in a climb-down by Government over a controversial policy banning Bermudians selling homes to foreigners — should not have progressed so far that Prof. Jowell was needed.

“It seems to us that an extraordinary sum of money has been spent on an unsatisfactory result for what appears to be a misguided policy in the first place,” said Mr. Barritt of the United Bermuda Party’s stance.

He pointed out that fee, revealed in an a Parliamentary answer from Junior Minister of Justice Michael Scott, comes close to the $155,000 annual salary paid to Bermuda’s Solicitor General.

Alan and Vera Rosa Marshall, the Bermudian owners of the palatial home GoldenEye, challenged Government in Supreme Court last year over its ban on locals selling homes to foreigners. They claimed the policy scuppered their chances of selling the property as no one on the Island could afford the luxury Tucker’s Town home, which was labelled the most expensive on the Island at the time.

Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Bell subsequently declared the ban unlawful, describing it as “an abuse of power,” and remarking that Government did not act in the public interest when he brought in the controversial policy in 2005.

However, Government then took the matter to the Court of Appeal, employing Prof. Jowell QC to fight the case. He announced midway through the hearing that the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs was prepared to use his discretion to consider a future application from a foreigner to buy GoldenEye. The home was later sold to an overseas buyer for a rumoured $17.5 million.

In the aftermath of the GoldenEye case, Government denied making a U-turn, stressing that the general policy banning Bermudians selling homes to foreigners remains in place. Premier at the time, Alex Scott, said it was necessary to preserve land for Bermudians. Mr. Barritt said the outcome of GoldenEye was “unsatisfactory” as the current position is unclear, with the potential for other Bermudian property owners to mount successful challenges of their own.

He also called for the chambers of the Attorney General, and the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Chief Justice to produce annual reports in order to share greater information with the public on key issues.

Although neither Michael Scott nor Attorney General Philip Perinchief responded to a request for comment, the Attorney General at the time of the GoldenEye case, Larry Mussenden, said last year that there is no defined policy on hiring overseas lawyers.

“The Attorney General will decide when it is in the public interest and the interest of the Government to engage the services of specialist counsel. That decision will be taken on a case-by-case basis,” he told Mr. Barritt in a previous parliamentary answer.