No one will give payoffs back: Former BBC bosses refuse to hand money back... and the corporation will not ask for it either The payments were revealed in a National Audit Office report on Monday Some staff paid twice by working their notice period and being paid in lieu The Corporation say it will not be asking for any of the cash back By Paul Revoir and Nick Fagge Former bosses at the heart of the controversy over generous BBC pay-offs have refused to hand their money back. Despite widespread anger over the huge scale of severance agreements, the Corporation will not be asking for any of the cash back - even if the pay-offs contravened the corporation's own policies. The payments were revealed in a National Audit Office report on Monday showed BBC executives authorised payments of £369million to departing staff. But some members of staff were even paid twice, by working their notice period and still being paid in lieu of this period, Former bosses at the heart of the controversy over generous BBC pay-offs have refused to hand their money back One Tory MP has already threatened to take any evidence of fraud in the payments to police. Last night the BBC said there were no plans to try and recoup any of the severance payments which were found to be over generous. And one of the executives named in the NAO report, Caroline Thomson, whose £680,000 pay-off was singled out, has said she will not be returning her money. Ms Thomson left the BBC last year after she lost out to George Entwistle in the race to succeed Mark Thompson as director general. She has a three day a week role as acting chief executive of English National Ballet. After Mr Entwistle took charge her post was made redundant. She had been with the BBC for 17 years when she left. The National Audit Office report showed how she had received a £331,400 in redundancy money and a further £335,000 "pay in lieu of notice." She was also handed £14,000 for "legal and outplacement costs," which took the total severance deal to £680,400. Speaking after she had addressed civil servants in West London this week, she said: "My pay-off was entirely in line with my contract. I offered to stay and work my notice and it was refused. I tried to stay longer, I didn't want to be made redundant, I wanted to stay and that was not what they decided to do. I feel my pay-off was completely legitimate. I still have not got a full time job. No comment: Mark Byford, the former deputy director general, refused to speak about his payment of £949,000 When the BBC's former marketing chief, Sharon Baylay, who was given a £394,000 severance deal after just two years there, was asked about her controversial pay-off she refused to comment. Speaking at her three-storey house in a leafy west London street, she said: "I don't have any comment to make to you." She then slammed the door shut. Similarly Mark Byford, the former deputy director general, also refused to speak about his payment of £949,000. In the NAO report it was observed that the BBC had paid him the maximum possible salary in lieu of notice, despite negotiating a redundancy settlement eight months before he left. Yesterday when asked about the payments he received from the BBC, after his 31 years there, he replied: "no comment." He then left his property in Winchester, Hampshire, and drove off in his dark blue Ford Galaxy. Another of the most controversial payments saw an unnamed executive given an £866,288 severance deal, which the NAO said was "inconsistent" with BBC policy on notice periods. An agreement was made with the boss that his job would go in 14 months" time, but the BBC then also gave him a year's pay in lieu of notice. Caroline Thomson, one of the executives named in the NAO report, whose £680,000 pay-off was singled out, has said she will not be returning her money When the Daily Mail approached the individual it believes to be the recipient of the payment, they said: "As you will be aware from yesterday's National Audit Office Report, certain staff names were anonymised by the BBC in order to comply with data protection law. You will also know from the Report that there are clauses in their employment contracts which prohibit those individuals from disclosing details about their severance payments. Given this, I consider I am unable to respond to the specific questions you have raised. "I would however like to make clear that any severance payments I received when I left the BBC after many years" service were made in fulfilment of long-standing contractual entitlements and approved at the highest level." Ex-director general Mr Entwistle had already come under pressure to give back some of his pay-off in the aftermath of his resignation, after it was revealed he had been given a £450,000 severance deal, double what he was entitled to. Lord Patten had said in December that the BBC had taken legal advice about whether it could take any money back, but he doubted there was a legal case for doing so. The NAO report showed that Mr Entwistle in total had been given an exit package worth £486,500 which included public relations advice, legal costs and payment for private medical insurance. One executive Roly Keating gave back his £376,000 pay out because he did not want to benefit from a potentially inappropriate payment. A BBC Trust spokesman said: "The NAO had full access to investigate severance payments to senior managers at the BBC. We fully accept their findings. On the basis of the evidence in the NAO's report we have no current plans to reclaim payments made to individuals. A spokesman from the BBC's executive arm added: "The BBC takes full responsibility for these payments and has taken measures to ensure they cannot happen again."