BBC - A man wrongly convicted of murder has lost his appeal against a Home Office bill for £37,000 for the cost of keeping him in jail for 11 years. The money will come out of the £650,000 compensation Michael O'Brien won for his time in prison after being convicted of killing a newsagent.

He was convicted of the 1987 murder of Philip Saunders but cleared in 1999.

But the Court of Appeal upheld a Home Office claim that he should pay for the 'saved living expenses' from his time when wrongly behind bars. [snip]

Three years later, in May 2002, Mr O'Brien, 37, was awarded a payout of almost £650,000, but the £37,000 was taken out to cover his accommodation.

Mr O'Brien initially won a challenge to the decision in the High Court in April 2003, but the Home Office launched an appeal in March this year. The Home Office argued that not to make any deduction for his saved living expenses would leave him in "a better position" financially than he would have been in had he never been jailed.