A FORMER Warrnambool councillor’s application to recover legal costs in the Melbourne Magistrates Court was yesterday adjourned for a month.
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The application of Jennifer Lowe and her husband Robbie Lowe was listed for hearing in court at 9.30am but was adjourned.
It is expected that barrister Damian Sheales will seek legal costs of more than $200,000 after the prosecution case against the Lowes for alleged financial offences fell apart on May 28.
The prosecution is expected to argue that the choices made by the Lowes and their legal team added to the overall costs.
The Lowes’ Warrnambool solicitor Tony Robinson said the costs hearing was likely to be adjourned for about a month. It has now been set down for hearing on August 27.
The Lowes were found not guilty of more than 600 charges by magistrate Timothy Walsh, who dismissed all charges after the prosecution announced it was seeking to withdraw the case.
The withdrawal came part-way through day three of a planned four-week contested hearing in the Warrnambool Magistrates Court at the end of May.
That ended a saga that dated back to a police inquiry that began in September 2009 and which had dragged through the courts since August 2011.
Mrs Lowe, 39, and Mr Lowe, 41, faced 343 and 276 charges respectively over alleged misappropriation of funds during their time working at Worn Gundidj Aboriginal Co-op.
The prosecution’s capitulation came in the middle of the cross-examination of its first of 31 intended witnesses, co-op manager Shannon Collyer.
The costs application involves the Lowes seeking to recoup the costs they spent fighting the charges.