This is a problem that has now been created a year on after Ex Mayor and Oakham Town Councillor
Alf Dewis was dealt with incorrectly correctly and permitted to resign due to a smaller breach of the law.
On Wednesday Oakham Town Town Council will be presented with an invoice for £32,1293.25
to pay for a Oakham Town Centre Manager employed by the Oakham Town Partnership
The Partnership states in a letter that meetings were held with Rutland County Council and the Town Council and all agreed this expense.
Oakham Town Council has never been consulted about this money or how it should be spent and never agreed anything as suggested in the town partnership letter.
At the time the 106 contribution was being agreed between Rutland County Council and Hawksmead
Cllr Alf Dewis and Cllr Adam Lowe were attending meetings according to correspondence sent to
Oakham Town Council by a Rutland County Council employee.
Cllr Adam Lowe says he has done nothing wrong, I would suggest he has, he may have not signed any agreement on behalf of the council. he most certainly failed to inform the council of what was happening.
At the time Rutland County Council was in talks with Hawksmead, Cllr Alf Dewis was the Chairman of the Oakham Town Partnership and in the later stages he was the Chairman of Oakham Town Council.
One day early last year The former Clerk Richard White emailed all Oakham Town Councillors
informing us that Rutland County Council had paid in error £62,586.50 into the councils bank account. a few days we were told all the money was meant for the Town Partnership to pay for a Town Centre Manager. I and others were not happy about this and a number
communications between the Town Council and Rutland County Council were sent and received and eventually the truth came out and all the money was meant for Oakham Town Council and they should decide how it should be spent.
Cllr Michael Haley was tasked with tempting to sort out and possibly cover up the failings of others involved. The money sits in a council account untouched because according to the chairman of the Town Partnership Cllr Michael Haley feels the money is tainted by possible fraudulently activity, in this case I agree with Cllr Michael Haley if he did actually say that.
I approached Leicestershire Police and suggested an act of fraud had been committed by Cllr Alf Dewis they look into it and said as long as Oakham Town Council had received the money in the end no crime had been committed. If the money had been paid into the Town Partnership account an act of fraud would have been committed. I wonder what happened to the offence of conspiracy to defraud
Conspiracy to defraud therefore contains two key elements; that the conspiracy involved dishonesty, and that if the conspiracy was undertaken, the victim's property rights would be harmed. This does not require the defendants' actions to directly result in the fraud; in R v Hollinshead,
Rutland County Council staff were asked by The Town Partnership to pay them direct. Fortunately
the payment team were wise and if they had not been Oakham Town Council may never have known it was entitled to the money. Because it is a fact that most members of the council had no clue that the money existed.
The questions here is how can a council not know surely Rutland County Council approached the council in the first place or did they just telephone Cllr Lowe and Mr Dewis. That maybe the case
as the former clerk told me at the time he had no knowledge of what was going on until the money arrived.
The invoice for £31,293.25 does not have to be paid by Oakham Town Council the persons
responsible for agreeing this expenditure should pay it.
And Leicestershire Police need to review this case of conspiracy to defraud.
If I am remembering correctly a Oakham Town Councillor sat on the interview panel
as a member of the public, which resulted the appointment of the Town Centre Manager, I am not suggesting they have done anything wrong but surely they must have noticed the town council was a key partner in this activity and none of this had been agreed at any full council meeting?
One of the biggest puzzles is Oakham Town Council received the money many months before the agreement was made between Rutland County Couincil and Hawksmead. It would be interesting to
see the original agreement the one which Mrs Briggs and her team messed up on and lost the county millions. I wonder if it mentioned a Town Centre Manager and what would have happened to the money sent to Oakham Town Council if this second agreement had not be signed because it is obvious that Rutland County Council had distributed lots of money they had not actually received from Hawksmead Ltd.
There are people from the old guard who want to sweep this under the carpet well it wont fit.
Cllr Joyce Lucas BEM
responded to my emails about this subject here is one of her responses
Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2017 at 2:38 PM
From: lucashackgreen@aol.com
To: "Martin Brookes"
Subject: RE:
YOU are costing this county such a lot of money.
J
She is clearly happy very for Councillors to act unlawfully, you can tell she was once a member of Rutland County Council because this is exactly how they responded to three of their councillors
who asked questions. Its bullying and intimidation I wont accept.
I wonder what sort of organisation has no contact phone number?
One which uses the service of a former Town Councillor and his son.
Oakham Town Partnership has provided a copy of a deed agreed between Rutland County Council
and Hawksmead Ltd,
One of the biggest puzzles is Oakham Town Council received the money many months before the agreement was made between Rutland County Couincil and Hawksmead. It would be interesting to
see the original agreement, the one which Mrs Briggs and her team messed up on and lost the county millions. I wonder if it mentioned a Town Centre Manager and what would have happened to the money sent to Oakham Town Council if this second agreement had not be signed because it is obvious that Rutland County Council had distributed lots of money they had not actually received from Hawksmead Ltd.
It has been pointed out to me and in one of our council meetings that Uppingham Town Council
received their money and spent it on anything they wanted and have not complied with the
terms of the agreement. It maybe a case that they were told by a Rutland County Council member
of staff they could do that because Oakham Town Council was once told that in a letter.
Oakham Town Council have been aware of this deed since I made them aware of it last year
and they chose to ignore me as normal,Cllr Michael Haley was aware of it when he kept
writing his daft letter to Hawksmead and Helen Briggs
The deed was published last year by RCC on its website after some one sent a FOI.
