The ex-Dawson City mayor accused of taking more than $100,000 from the town's coffers while in office will have to pay his own legal expenses.

Glen Everitt made an application in Yukon Supreme Court last week to have the Crown pay for a lawyer to represent him in a preliminary hearing.

Everitt has been charged with theft, fraud and breaching the public trust during his tenure as mayor of Dawson from 1996 to 2004.

But Justice Leigh Gower has dismissed the application for funding, commonly known as a Rowbotham application after a case that set the precedent for how the courts should judge similar requests for financial assistance from the Crown.

In his decision, Gower wrote the onus on Everitt to prove he cannot afford a lawyer, or defend himself in a trial, "is a heavy one" - one that ultimately, Everitt could not carry.

Last week, the court heard that in spite of the fact that in 2005 he had been told by at least one lawyer to start building a "war chest" for his defence fund, Everitt did little to save or prepare for the impending court battle.

When formal charges were laid against him in August 2007, Everitt was told by a handful of Whitehorse lawyers that his case would be an expensive one.

Even then, he made no attempts to find a lawyer willing to work at the legal aid rate nor did he cut down his monthly expenses, both requirements for a Rowbotham application.

Everitt testified he bought a $9,000 snowmobile for his son in 2007 and said his wife drives a 2006 RAV4, worth between $18,000 and $26,000. The household makes monthly payments on both. He could have trimmed these expenses, the judge said.

Furthermore, had the former mayor quit smoking and spent a fraction less on groceries, he could easily have saved a significant amount of money within the 14 months since he was charged, Gower wrote.

"Even if Mr. Everitt was only able to save a modest amount of money each month, to date it would translate into several thousand dollars, which would likely be sufficient to retain counsel," the judge wrote.

Apart from proving he could not afford a lawyer, Everitt also had to show he was not capable of running his own defence. Again, Gower found Everitt had not made a reasonable effort to review and understand the evidence compiled against him.

During his cross-examination last week, Everitt said he had not looked at much of the Crown's evidence, all of which he has, because he didn't understand how it applied to his case.

"It seems a very weak submission to say he is unable to understand the significance of the disclosure provided if he hasn't reviewed it," Gower wrote.

Everitt has already been denied legal aid, and with the failure of this application, he is left on his own to fund or captain his own defence.