SOLICITORS and a union have double-charged more than 1,000 miners and textile workers seeking compensation for deafness in a scandal dubbed "the worst yet".

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has refused to pay the fees because of "up to six unnecessary deductions", Labour MP John Mann revealed yesterday.

Mr Mann accused solicitors and the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) of taking part in a "feeding frenzy" for claims for noise-induced hearing loss.

Former miners and textile workers had not been told part of their compensation would be held back in fees.

The Law Society has been swamped with investigations into suspect solicitors who have deducted money from compensation awards.

An independent inquiry last year recommended miners should be reimbursed if they were not informed in advance that fees were not compulsory.

Speaking at Prime Minister's questions, Mr Mann said he had been told by medical assessors that costs had been refused in more than 1,000 cases.

He told Tony Blair: "There is a feeding frenzy at the moment over miners' and textile workers' deafness claims, which is even worse than the previous double-charging scandal, with up to six unnecessary deductions by solicitors and the UDM."

Mr Mann demanded the Lord Chancellor intervene with the Law Society to claw back costs and ensure "money wrongly deducted is returned to both miners and textile workers".

In reply, Mr Blair said the issue would be considered in the Court of Appeal on June 19, but that the MP's general point was "absolutely right".

The Prime Minister said the DTI had saved "substantial sums of money" by withholding fees for breaches of conditional fee regulations.

A DTI spokeswoman was unable to confirm the figure of more than 1,000 claims, or give any indication of how many claimants were in the North-East.