Lord Alan Sugar ordered to delete tweet

Lord Alan Sugar was ordered to remove a Twitter post by a High Court judge during a Tory peer’s expenses fraud trial, it has been revealed.

Mr Justice Saunders told Labour peer Sir Alan to delete the comment over fears that what he said could have influenced the jury sitting on peer Lord Taylor’s trial earlier this year.

He hinted in the tweet made on the second day of trial that because Lord Taylor was a Tory, he may escape conviction.

The Amstrad founder and Apprentice star reportedly said in January: “Lord Taylor, Tory peer, in court over alleged expenses fiddle. Wonder if he will get off as he is a Tory compared to Labour MP who was sent to jail.”

According to reports, he was referring to former Labour MP David Chaytor, who had earlier received an 18-month prison sentence for expenses fraud.

The message tweeted by the tough business tsar – who has 286,000 followers on the popular social networking site - was live for 20 minutes.

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Saunders later referred the matter to attorney general, Dominic Grieve, who decided to take no further action.

A spokeswoman from the Attorney General’s Office confirmed with Yahoo! News today that: “The attorney general considered the issue when it was brought to our attention in January, but we decided not to bring any proceedings against him.”

A spokesperson for Lord Sugar, who was away in the US when he made the tweet, said that he was unaware of the significance of his tweet and immediately complied with the judge's wishes.

He said: “There is absolutely no way that Lord Sugar would want to prejudice any legal process at all.”

The AG has the power to bring charges against someone that publishes anything that could influence a jury and ultimately interfere with the course of justice under the Contempt of Court Act 1981.

Lord Taylor was found guilty of expenses fraud in January but reporting restrictions on the content of Sir Alan’s tweet were only lifted yesterday when the expenses trial of another Tory peer George Hannington was over.