The treasurer of the Board of Deputies has been rebuked for publishing two messages on Twitter which may have been in contempt of court.

Asylum judge Laurence Brass, a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, made the remarks about a trial which is due to start in January next year.

Judge Brass posted the tweets referring to the legal case — in which he is not professionally involved and which the Jewish Chronicle cannot identify for legal reasons – on the social networking site last Friday.

He removed the mesaages within an hour, apparently after he had been contacted directly by the Lib Dem whips office and warned about the potential legal difficulties associated with the tweets.

A Lib Dem source told the Mail on Sunday that had Judge Brass been an MP or a peer he would have faced being “b******ed up and down the garden path”.

Judge Brass declined to comment when asked about the deleted tweets this week. He stood for the Lib Dems against Margaret Thatcher in Finchley at the two general elections of 1974.