Duty to uphold the law : Barry Town Council and the Vale of Glamorgan Council

In December 2018, the Ombudsman’s office received a complaint from the Monitoring Officer of the Vale of Glamorgan Council that the Former Member (who was still a member of both town and county Councils at the time) had been charged with historic sexual offences and, as such, may have brought both his Councils and his office as a councillor into disrepute.

The Former Member was found guilty. He was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.

Section 80A of the Local Government Act 1972 provides that a person shall be disqualified from being elected or being a member of a local authority in Wales if a person has been convicted of a criminal offence and has been sentenced to imprisonment (whether suspended or not) of 3 months or more.

The Former Member has automatically been disqualified from being a member of any Authority in Wales under the above provision. As the maximum period of disqualification which is available to the Adjudication Panel for Wales has already been imposed there is no benefit from continuing the investigation. Therefore it was discontinued.