Arthur Scargill wins £13,000 union damages Former miners' leader Arthur Scargill has been awarded £13,000 in damages after he sued a trust fund of the union he led for 20 years. Mr Scargill, 74, sued the National Union of Mineworkers Yorkshire Area Trust Fund (YATF) over a range of expenses he claimed he was owed when he worked for them in a £26,000-a-year role after he retired as NUM national president. Today, a judge at Sheffield County Court rejected the former union boss's claim that he should have had his telephone costs reimbursed by the trust. But Judge Robert Moore ruled that Mr Scargill was entitled to a car allowance substantially more than the £50 the trustees eventually offered him. He awarded him £12,000 in damages. The judge also awarded Mr Scargill a further £1,000 in damages because he was denied membership of the NUM for 10 months during the dispute. Judge Moore told the court that when the trustees began to question Mr Scargill's contract, "there was a clear agenda both to disown him and to pay him as little as possible." Mr Scargill's barrister Timothy Pitt-Payne QC said the trust treated his client "in a thoroughly shabby way and in a way that was quite inappropriate, given his long and distinguished career within the union."