THE man who cheated his way to a fortune, and cost East Lancashire 1,000 precious jobs on the way, is out of prison.

The people at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Blackburn, who found themselves out of work because of civil servant Gordon Foxley's sheer greed will be feeling pretty sick at the news.

As far as they are concerned Foxley is the most reviled man in Britain.

The former director of munitions procurement at the Ministry of Defence was given a four-year prison sentence in May 1994 after being convicted of taking £1.3 million in bribes from overseas companies.

The feathering of his personal nest meant that precious contracts went abroad instead of to Blackburn.

Foxley was ordered to serve an extra three years if he did not surrender assets worth £1.5 million. He did not. But, far from serving the extra stretch, he has resumed his life of luxury at his £750,000 mansion near Henley-on-Thames.

When he was asked about his early release he had the gall to say that he had "been out longer than that".

Foxley's illicit fortune is thought to be secreted away in his Swiss Bank accounts. In December the MoD admitted it had failed to trace the money.

It looks as though Foxley is having the last laugh. While he lives in unashamed luxury many of the people who lost their jobs because of his greed are still without work.

They must be wondering what British justice is all about.

When we consider the havoc and misery he caused, Foxley's original sentence was extremely lenient. And the extra three years was obviously meaningless.

He should have remained incarcerated until he had accounted for every last penny of his ill-gotten gains.

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