Lib Dem Fraud

A LIBERAL Democrat councillor has been expelled from the party and is at the centre of a police investigation.

Cllr Sera Kentman, who has represented Whitefoot ward in Lewisham since last May, was axed after breaching rules, which included failing to disclose her debts as a councillor.

News Shopper can reveal Ms Kentman is an undischarged bankrupt, who may have stood illegally at last May's elections.

Under Section 80 of the Local Goverment Act 1972, no-one can stand in an election as a councillor if they are an undischarged bankrupt. According to Lewisham Council's Liberal Democrat leader Mark Morris other allegations involving Ms Kentman include:

# A £9,000 overpayment of housing benefit on a house she part owns.

# Outstanding council tax payments back dating over a year.

# Her use of a number of different names. Ms Kentman was temporarily suspended three weeks ago from the party and given time to provide information on her debts and proof of her identity.
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreennews.1258616.0.councillor_is_bankrupt.php

Yet More Labour Fraud

Labour County councillor Olive McIntosh-Stedman has been charged with council tax fraud. Ms McIntosh-Stedman, a county councillor for Cowley and Littlemore since 1997, was charged with two counts of making false council tax benefit claims in 2002.

She has denied all the charges, but has quit the Labour group and is currently sitting as an independent. She will appear before Oxford Crown Court for trial next month. Ms McIntosh-Stedman, 64, of Williamson Way, Rose Hill, Oxford, is a registered nurse with a diploma in women's studies and a degree in publishing.

Last night (Tuesday) she said: "There is a great misunderstanding and all that will be cleared up in due course." Oxford City Council, which is bringing the prosecution, declined to comment on the particulars of the case or reveal how much it was alleged Ms McIntosh-Stedman tried to claim from the authority.

http://www.oxfordmail.net/display.var.1256516.0.0.php

(Hat Tip: Barnsley Nationalist)

More Labour Fraud

Thanks to an anonymous commenter on my previous post who chips in with "its hasnt come out yet but will over the next few weeks i have had a small hand in this and can tell you it is labour who are implicated and the dirty bastards are up to the neck in it"

Well done friend, keep up the good work and let's screw these bastards even harder

POLICE INVESTIGATE COUNCIL EXPENSES
The fraud squad is investigating allegations that some Stoke-on-Trent city councillors have been fiddling thousands of pounds of expenses. Detectives are ploughing through a dossier which claims to lift the lid on a scam involving at least 12 current or former local politicians.

Some councillors are alleged to have submitted vastly inflated mileage figures to boost their expenses for car, taxi and bus travel. The dossier, which has been seen by The Sentinel, appears to show some councillors claiming double or triple the amount they should for journeys on local authority business.
http://www.thisisthesentinel.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=158315&comntentPK=16857121

Labour Fraud Lies and general taking the piss

A councillor who 'pleaded poverty' in court owns a £500,000 Victorian home, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.

Coun Hussain Akhtar, who was accused by a judge of 'concocting a story' to avoid hygiene charges at his food shop, has now been heavily criticised by councillors.

The situation emerged after he successfully applied for planning permission to widen the drive at his house in Shear Bank Road, Blackburn.

In November, when he was fined £3,500 with £5,000 costs after admitting two breaches of hygiene regulations, the court was told he was relying on his overdraft.

His solicitor told the court that Akhtar's Food Store, Whalley Range, only made a trading profit of £20,000 and his client, who lived above the premises, was making about £200 a week alongside his £5,000 council allowance.

And the solicitor said unwittingly: "As you will appreciate he is not a wealthy man. At the moment any money he has is generated from his overdraft."

But Land Registry documents show that in June 2003 the Shear Brow councillor and his wife Tahzeem paid £365,000 for the large semi-detached house in a sought-after location within a Conservation Area, with a mortgage from the National Westminster Bank.

Continued

Lib Dem Murder - Well Nearly

Top councillor resigns amid murder probe

A prominent Scottish Liberal Democrat councillor has resigned after his home was searched and he was questioned in relation to a major murder investigation.

Raymond Hutcheon, 50, who at one time lived with a prostitute and was spoken to by police for kerb crawling, was a member of a Holyrood adult entertainment working group, as well as holding key posts on Aberdeen City Council.

He was also a member of Grampian Joint Police Board and Aberdeen City Council's standards and scrutiny committee, which has a remit to ensure "absolute probity".

Mr Hutcheon's house was searched on Monday in connection with the investigation into the death of 57-year-old Ronald Mair, whose body was found bound and gagged in a cupboard of his home in Kettlehills Crescent, Aberdeen, last month.

Mr Mair's lifestyle was linked to drugs and prostitution. Three people have since been charged with his murder. On Monday, Stephen Rankin, 32, of Darvel, Ayrshire, appeared in court on a murder charge and yesterday Derek Carswell, 40, of Dreghorn, by Irvine, and Jane McBurnie, 17, of Thetford, Norfolk, appeared on petition at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on murder and other charges.

Continued

Update

A FORMER councillor, who was a member of a Scottish government think tank looking into the sex industry, admitted that he used the services of prostitutes who also supplied him with crack cocaine, it was reported yesterday.

Raymond Hutcheon has been in the spotlight since it was revealed that he was connected to prostitutes who were supplied by murdered drug dealer Bob Mair.

The allegations first surfaced in March, when police investigating Mr Mair's murder searched the councillor's Aberdeen home, Corsehill Croft, for leads. Mr Hutcheon stepped down from his post as a councillor "for personal reasons" during the police inquiry.

Now, according to a Sunday newspaper, it has emerged that he confessed to his drug use and relationship with four prostitutes in police interviews with detectives investigating the murder.

Mr Hutcheon, who was a councillor for 20 years before stepping down earlier this year, was a member of Aberdeen Council's Standards and Scrutiny committee and sat on Grampian Joint Police Board and a sub-committee on drugs and alcohol.

In 2002 he was forced to stand down as a governor at Oakbank School in Aberdeen after it was revealed that he had a live-in relationship with a former prostitute, Vicky Sneddon.

According to the leaked transcripts reported yesterday he told officers that he had first had a relationship with another prostitute, Nicola Stewart, who had a heroin addiction. "On our initial meeting I secured her services as a prostitute," he said.

The affair lasted six months and he then met Ms Sneddon, who he claimed introduced him to crack cocaine.

In 2005 he picked up Kerry Stirton and told police: "Kerry was a crack abuser and sourced crack for her and me. I gave her money for crack every few days, about £50 to £100 per time."

Source