Disgraced cabinet minister Chris Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce are expected to be released from prison next month, after serving around two months of their eight-month sentences.
The former couple, both jailed last month for eight months for perverting the course of justice, are likely to be released some time in May around a quarter of the way through their sentence.
Huhne pleaded guilty and Pryce was convicted by a jury, after it emerged that she had taken speeding points on his behalf a decade earlier.
Pryce’s solicitor Robert Brown said she is expected to be released on a tag some time in mid-May, although no specific date has been set. He said this was not due to any special treatment but the same as any other inmate.
For sentences of less than a year, an offender will be automatically released after serving half their sentence.
In addition, offenders serving sentences of between three months and four years, with certain exceptions, may also be eligible for release on a home detention curfew.
This allows an offender to be released up to 135 days before their automatic release date and electronic tagging is used. A court heard former energy secretary Huhne, 58, is fighting a claim for more than £100,000 in prosecution costs.
A costs hearing at Southwark Crown Court, which Huhne was present at but not Pryce, heard the former Lib Dem politician’s legal team has offered £25,000.
Prosecutors are claiming a total of £108,541.15 from Huhne, who pleaded guilty in February, on the first day of his trial, after months of protracted attempts to get the case against him thrown out.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC said that the six-figure claim was “just and reasonable”.
He told the court: “All of this occurred because Mr Huhne decided to do everything he could to try and get away with what he had done and gave in only at the last minute when defeat was inevitable.”
He said an “enormous amount of work” was done by the Crown Prosecution Service, counsel, and the police because of Huhne’s assertions.
But the former minister’s barrister John Kelsey-Fry QC said it was “simply unjust and unreasonable” to expect Huhne to pay what he described as “every single possible penny that anybody could think of”.