A FAILED legal fight which saw council chiefs bring in private detectives to prove a worker should be sacked has already cost taxpayers more than £40,000 in legal costs.

And now the bill is set to rise even further, at least in the short term, when Swansea Council goes back to court in a battle with Malcolm Honey.

The former legal adviser was ruled to have been unfairly dismissed when he won an employment tribunal against his former employers in 2007, and awarded £66,000 compensation. But the council has won the right to recontest his claim for unfair dismissal.

Mr Honey took three weeks off work in 2006 with bronchitis. Swansea Council brought in private detectives to check whether he was sick, and claimed he had been on holiday in West Wales for a week.

But Mr Honey produced telephone records showing calls had been made from his Killay home on the dates in question.

The case has cost the taxpayer £40,571.27 in legal costs so far. And that figure will rise when the two sides meet on June 22 for an estimated four-day hearing. The final bill will depend on the outcome and if the council still has to pay the £66,000 in compensation.