Shamed peer Jeffrey Archer has stalled Barnet Council's attempts to make him return a decade-old libel payment.
Lawyers acting for the millionaire novelist have told council solicitors he intends to appeal against his four-year sentence.
Archer, currently detained at North Sea Camp open prison in Lincolnshire, was jailed in July for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Councillor Kitty Lyons, whose outspoken views on Archer sparked the whole saga, said this week: "This appeal is the last gasp of a drowning man we'll be waiting in the wings for our money."
Barnet Council is seeking the return of £2,000, paid towards Archer's legal costs after he threatened to sue the borough in 1989.
The novelist took action after being tipped off about an unfriendly motion by Mrs Lyons criticising his visit to Ravenscroft School's prizegiving.
She condemned the decision to invite him to present the awards, adding: "His association with prostitution is not the right lifestyle for promotion in Barnet's maintained schools."
After failing in a High Court bid to gag the meeting, he demanded an apology and damages and Barnet paid up.
The floodgates were opened for Barnet Council's claim to recover those damages when an Old Bailey jury found Archer guilty earlier this year of lying in a libel trial against the Daily Star.
October 24, 2001 11:46
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