Because of Mr van Hoogstraten's failure to pay costs, the judge barred him, until he pays up, from pursuing a claim that pounds 1m of his assets had been seized unlawfully by sequestrators during earlier stages of the complex dispute.

Glancy, who sang on Smalltown Boy, which reached No3 in 1984, was banned from taking out credit without the permission of the sequestrators.

In his Mystery of the Two Junto's, Clement Walker complains about how Parliament's judges have gone beyond their authority by sequestering men "unjustly," confiscating their goods "under pretence," and levying taxes in order "to secure Country Committees, Sequestrators, and others (not Prerogative but Legislative) Thieves, contrary to Magna Charta.