Travellers fighting to stay in illegally-built green belt homes have lost entitlement to legal aid payments following a newspaper exposé.

The three women from the Dale Farm site in Oak Lane, Crays Hill, near Basildon, were among a number of travellers funded by the Legal Service Commission in their battle for planning permission against Basildon Council which wants them off the land.

But an investigation by Basildon Echo political reporter Jon Austin found many of the travellers had given up tenancies on housing association homes in Wolverhampton or were still registered as living at them.

They had claimed they developed the land illegally because they were homeless and had nowhere else to go.

The exposé, which found links to the travellers and an estate of 40 homes, prompted investigations by the Legal Service Commission which organised their legal aid, the benefits agency and Basildon Council and Wolverhampton Council.

As a result of the commission's probe, the three women have had their payments stopped and may be pursued to pay back cash claimed.

Jon also discovered that one of the women, who was on income support and told Basildon Council she was a single mother, was the director of a French asphalting firm with her husband.

The story followed an 18-month investigation which also revealed the Irish travellers known as the Sheridan Clan at Dale Farm had links to a string of other illegal sites including Smithy Fen, in Cottenham, Cambrideshire and others in Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

The series netted Jon an award in the Press Gazette Regional Journalism Awards this year and publication his findings led to two protests by villagers at Westminster and in Crays Hill, questions in Parliament and calls for a full Government inquiry into the issue.