TAXPAYERS are furious after the 'farcical' prosecution of Lesley Sampson, mother to Britain’s Got Talent winner George, wasted thousands of pounds of public money.

The prosecution by Warrington Borough Council ended in an abandoned trial last week because compelling evidence was not produced. The process took nearly 10 months, involved six court hearings and cost taxpayers at least £20,000 although total expenses could be significantly higher.

Lesley was first charged with flytipping the fanmail of her dance star son George back in April 2009.

She missed appearances at Warrington Magistrates Court but eventually pleaded not guilty in July. It took seven months for the trial to reach Chester Crown Court and ultimately failed due to a bungled prosecution by the borough council, who were guilty of a ‘lamentable failure’ to produce evidence, according to Judge Ian Trigger.

Proceedings were abandoned last Thursday and fourty-year-old Lesley was aquitted of dumping 15 bags of rubbish at the back of her home on Lyster Close, Birchwood.

The prosecution attempted to bring a second charge forward at the last minute, but the indictment of ‘failing to ensure household waste was delivered to an authorised person’ had already been rejected in Magistrates court.

Judge Trigger said that changing the charge so late in the day was an ‘abuse of the court system’.

Taxpayers have now been left wondering if the prosecution has been an abuse of public spending, after defence barrister Jonathan Duffy revealed there had only ever been three letters found with George Sampson’s name on.

On the Guardian website people made their feelings clear.

“This is disgusting and the council are a disgrace - the money could have gone to Birchwood fire station,” said jwalsh036.

“Does WBC know what they are doing? Council heads should roll,” said Reader.

“The council have ballsed up but that is nothing new,” said grey_appleton.

“The whole situation should have been handle differently from the outstart,” said jackie hammond.

A spokesman for the council, however, said:"We believe that there was an arguable case for Mrs Sampson to answer as to how the large quantities of fanmail came to be at the back of the house. The judge took a different view of the arguments put forward and accordingly dismissed the case.”