Council blames Localism Act for inability to remove councillor from office

A local authority has blamed changes brought in through the Localism Act 2011 for its inability to remove from office a councillor found guilty of benefit fraud.

Cllr Kevin Wilson, who represents a ward in Tiverton, received a 10-week suspended sentence with 200 hours community service after pleading guilty to the offence.

However, he continues to serve as a councillor at Mid-Devon District Council and receive an allowance.

The local authority has issued a statement saying that “managers, staff and elected members…..have expressed anger and frustration” at this situation.

It said: “The council wishes to make it clear that legally it has no power to remove this councillor from office. This is because the Government abolished the previous national disciplinary system for councils as part of the Localism Act 2011, which would have enabled us to take action.”

Kevin Finan, chief executive of Mid-Devon, said: “Had this been a member of staff, we would have suspended them when the allegations were first made and sacked them on the spot when found guilty.

“Unfortunately, due to changes in the law, we are prevented from applying the same standards to our elected members.”

The issue is to be considered at a meeting of full council on 26 February. A motion has been put forward that condemns Cllr Wilson and calls for his immediate resignation.

Mid-Devon also sought to address claims in the local press that it had acted disproportionately and made “legal attempts to utterly destroy” Cllr Wilson.

Finan said: “The council has a legal duty to take action where we find fraudulent and criminal behaviour, in this instance one of our councillors. I believe in these circumstances, any reasonable person would conclude that any damage to his reputation is entirely his own doing.

“One can only imagine the outcry from the media and the general public were we to have turned a blind eye to the deceit, benefit fraud and dishonesty, just because it was being carried out by one of our own elected Members, who should know better and from whom the public are entitled to expect a higher level of honesty and integrity.”

However, Cllr Wilson received support from Tiverton East county councillor Des Hannon.

Hannon told ThisistheWestCountry.co.uk: “Kevin Wilson has been convicted and I’ll not justify his crime. It’s very sad.”

He added: “In the midst of his own personal Greek tragedy – divorce, depression and desperation – he failed to properly handle his paperwork.

“He got deeper in trouble and told lies in his panic, but, as far as I can see, if he’d done the paperwork properly and taken legal advice he couldn’t afford he’d have been entitled to the money. I don’t think we taxpayers have lost out.”

Hannon claimed: “On the other hand I understand the council has spent more than ten times his debt – which he’s already repaying – hiring top QCs to utterly destroy him.

“The judge handed down a short sentence because he intended it would not disbar Kevin from being a councillor. That’s really unusual.”