Former boxing champion's quest for greater knowledge lands him in court over false information on grant application

It was while detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure, awaiting trial for attempted murder, that Terry Marsh, the former champion boxer and one-time Liberal Democrat candidate, acquired his taste for learning.

So keenly was his appetite whetted that after graduating in politics and government, he applied for a second grant to enable him to study for another degree, Southwark Crown Court in south London, was told yesterday. The problem was that Mr Marsh allegedly failed to tell the London Borough of Tower Hamlets that he had already received one grant. "He deliberately censored certain information about himself and left it off the application form," said Michael Speak, for the prosecution.

Mr Marsh, 39, of Basildon, the Essex town where he stood down as the Liberal Democrat election candidate this year after being charged in connection with the student grant application, was arrested after Tower Hamlets authorities called in the police. The former IBF world light-welterweight title holder, denies a charge of furnishing false information to the education authority between May and June of 1995. Mr Speak told the jury that, having received a grant from Essex County Council for his first BA honours degree at London Guildhall University, Mr Marsh knew he was not entitled to any further financial assistance. The court heard that he began studying for the initial course in 1991, after being acquitted at the Old Bailey of the attempted murder of Frank Warren, the boxing promoter, following 10 months spent in prison on remand.

Mr Speak alleged that Mr Marsh, a former fireman and Royal Marine commando, lied when answering a question on the application form about whether he had applied for a grant before.

The trial continues today.