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Joe public pay up again...........
Taxpayers also funding costs of ex-BBC finance head in defamation case against a tabloid newspaper
News that Zarin Patel is taking action over criticisms of the way the organisation paid stars emerged after The Independent revealed departing head of human resources, Lucy Adams, is using licence fee money to sue the NUJ
I
BBC licence fee payers are funding a personal legal action for defamation brought by a second former executive, The Independent can disclose.
The broadcaster is covering the legal costs of its former £322,000-a-year chief finance officer, Zarin Patel, who is taking action against a tabloid newspaper over its criticisms of the way the organisation paid stars including Jeremy Paxman and Chris Moyles via personal service companies.
Ms Patel claimed she had been personally defamed by a report headlined "Dodge tax or face the sack! BBC tells its stars" and an accompanying editorial headlined "Beeb con must stop" in the Daily Star.
The news that the BBC is covering her legal fees emerged after The Independent revealed that the BBC's departing head of human resources, Lucy Adams, is using licence fee money to sue the National Union of Journalists over allegations that her department engaged in "dirty tricks". Ms Patel lodged a claim in the High Court last year, seeking £50,000 in libel damages. She said the story had suggested she "had devised or connived in the BBC's deplorable practice of ordering its star employees, under pain of dismissal, to dodge tax".
The case is ongoing.