A York father who was jailed for nine days in a mix-up over child maintenance payments could receive "shockingly inadequate'' compensation from the Child Support Agency.

The controversial agency says it may pay Tony Humble's legal fees for the court hearing at which he was sent down.

But Mr Humble, a chef, of Thoresby Road, Acomb, says this is nowhere near enough to compensate him for nine days under lock and key among murderers, thieves and drug users.

"I have never experienced anything like it. I can look back and laugh now, but at the time it was a bit of a nightmare. It was a frightening experience."

And York MP Hugh Bayley said Mr Humble was entitled to a substantial apology and substantial compensation. "This letter is a shockingly inadequate response," he said. "An innocent man has been jailed."

The offer came more than 18 months after Mr Bayley asked the Parliamentary Ombudsman to investigate the way the agency had handled the matter.

"The CSA is now trying to offer some compensation to present a better impression to the Ombudsman who is on their backs," claimed the MP.

Mr Humble claims it was the agency's fault that magistrates sent him to prison for 28 days in 1995, because it failed to cancel an out-of-date maintenance order for his eight-year-old daughter.

Mr Humble was sentenced for failing to pay arrears totalling hundreds of pounds in relation to a £15 a week maintenance order made by the York family court. A friend put up £400 to win his release after nine days.

Mr Humble claims he stopped paying the order when the CSA made a separate order, at least two years before he was imprisoned, that he should pay £89 a week.

He understood the agency had to cancel the magistrates' order within three days of making its own order - but it apparently did not do so.

It was only a year after his prison sentence that the alleged mistake led to his debt being cancelled.

The agency's special payments section has now written to him, saying: "Further to the investigation of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, we have been asked to look at your claim for compensation again." The letter gives details of which legal costs it is prepared to consider.

Mr Humble said: "I feel they must feel responsible to have offered something to me. This admits that they were wrong with what happened."

See COMMENT ... Ordeal highlights failings of CSA

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