HOLYROOD bosses have written off £100,000 owed by evicted pro-independence campaigners because of the "negligible" chance of recovering any of the money.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body announced in November that it would seek legal and enforcement costs from nine individuals behind the 11-month ‘Indycamp’ protest.

However the parliament has now decided to abandon the recovery action, after checks found the nine had no significant assets and there was little likelihood of success.

It could also have cost another £35,000 to go to court to recover any expenses at all.

A paper to the SPCB said: “Our legal advisers estimate that, in total, the Auditor of Court is likely to find that around £90,000 to £100,000 is due. If expenses were apportioned equally, this equates to around £10,000 to £11,000 due by each of the 9 respondents.”

The decision means the Indycamp cost the public purse around £128,000, once the parliament’s legal fees and other eviction costs are taken into account.

The rag-tag group of protesters set up tents and caravans on a grassy area next to the parliament in 2015, and vowed not to leave until Scotland was independent.

The group claimed the camp was a "continuation" of the five-year Democracy for Scotland vigil which campaigned for devolution in the 1990s.

Arguing it was politically neutral and could not allow the camp to stay, the parliament then started eviction proceedings which turned into a bizarre legal battle at the Court of Session.

Representing themselves, some of the protesters tried unsuccessfully to call the Queen as a witness and claims that a pro-independence Jesus had returned to Earth.

There were two main rounds to the fight.

In the first, the parliament went to the Court of Session at a cost of £67,150, and last July Lord Turnbull ruled it would not breach human rights to have the camp evicted.

Seven men and women, most calling themselves the Sovereign Indigenous Peoples of Scotland then appealed that decision, an action which cost parliament another £38,739.

Court officers finally cleared the site after 343 days of protest.

A Holyrood spokesperson said: “The SPCB has a clear duty to use public funds prudently and therefore to seek to recover the cost of this court action where viable.

“However it has now become clear that the prospects for recovery are negligible.

“The SPCB has therefore concluded that it is not cost effective to spend further public funds in pursuing the matter.”