Two victims of high-profile “miscarriages of justice” lost a legal bid for increased compensation today.

Darren Hall was wrongly imprisoned for killing a Cardiff newsagent, Philip Saunders, and Stephen Miller wrongly served time for the brutal murder of prostitute Lynette White.

Mr Hall, 39, from Newport, Gwent, and Mr Miller, from south London, and their co-defendants, had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal after spending years behind bars. They received compensation totalling more than £400,000.

But their legal team argued at the High Court in London that their awards were "irrationally low" and that they should have received tens of thousands more.

Today Lord Justice Latham, sitting with Mrs Justice Swift, ruled that their argument was "impossible to sustain" and rejected their bid for increased compensation.

Both men contended that the assessor, Lord Brennan, QC, had not applied the law correctly when carrying out his calculations, especially when compensating them for actual loss of liberty.

Mr Hall was awarded £125,000 as part of his total compensation package. His lawyers argued that if the law had been correctly applied, he would have received closer to £250,000.

Mr Miller was awarded £55,000 for loss of liberty, but argued that figure should have been closer to £125,000.

Lawyers for Lord Brennan maintained his approach was entirely correct and not open to legal challenge.

Today, in a written judgment, the judges agreed and refused both men permission to appeal.

Mr Hall was wrongly convicted with two others of murdering the newsagent in July 1988 and spent the whole of his 20s in custody. His convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in January 2000. The appeal judges ruled that the convictions were unsafe because the prosecution could not establish his admissions of guilt had not been obtained without “oppression”.

Mr Hall had admitted acting as a look-out while his co-defendants attacked Mr Saunders, but the appeal judges said they were satisfied he was of a personality type given to making false confessions.

He became eligible to compensation under section 133 of the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, having wrongly spent 11 years and one month in custody. The Home Secretary accepted it was beyond reasonable doubt there had been a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Miller was wrongly convicted with two co-defendants of the murder of Cardiff prostitute Lynette White, who was stabbed 50 times. He was jailed in 1990 at the age of 22 and spent four years and one month in prison.

In December 1992, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions. The judges said Mr Miller, who had a borderline mental handicap and low IQ, had been “bullied and hectored” by officers and they were “horrified” by a tape recording of the “hostile and intimidating” questioning. They ruled admissions of guilt had been obtained by oppression.

In 2003 DNA evidence led to the conviction of another man, Jeffrey Gafoor, for Ms White’s murder.

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