A court official who says he was sacked for whistleblowing about a magistrate who was dialling in from his home Portugal is suing the Ministry of Justice for unfair dismissal. Chris John said he was “shocked” to find magistrate Phil Taylor was working from his home near the Portuguese capital of Lisbon to decide on criminal cases at Reading Magistrates’ Court. The court legal adviser raised concerns about the unusual work-from-home set-up, arguing Mr Taylor’s decisions that day on low-level crimes in the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), as well as thousands of other convictions and sentences he has overseen remotely, could be rendered unlawful and invalid. Mr John took his complaints to Justice Secretary David Lammy and Courts Minister Sarah Sackman, while senior judges and officials investigated the matter and concluded that magistrates should not dial in to hearings from outside the UK.…