Former Fareham Liberal Democrat falsely claimed housing and council tax benefits (From Daily Echo)

Former Fareham Liberal Democrat falsely claimed housing and council tax benefits

2:33pm Monday 8th March 2010 in

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HE WAS booted off the council for swindling cash from the taxpayers he was supposed to be serving.

Now disgraced benefits cheat Hugh Pritchard is considering asking voters to give him a second chance – at the age of 74.

In 2002 the pensioner was expelled from his Liberal Democrat party and forced from his seat on Fareham Borough Council after he was convicted for falsely claiming housing and council tax benefits.

Eight years on and Mr Pritchard is being lined up for a dramatic return – sparking fury among opposition councillors who have slammed the controversial move as a “sad day for democracy”.

Despite his past convictions the Fareham Liberal Democrat Party has chosen Mr Pritchard to stand as their candidate for Locks Heath at the next election.

They have strongly defended their decision, insisting Mr Pritchard deserves a second chance.

Councillor Jim Murray, chairman of the Fareham Liberal Democrats, said: “Hugh has served his sentence, so there is no reason why he should not stand if he wants to.

“It is up to the electorate to decide if they are going to trust him and it is his job now to convince them that he can be trusted.

“Everyone deserves a second chance and we believe he should be given this opportunity.”

Mr Pritchard was convicted of defrauding the council out of £1,200 in October 2002, when he was councillor for Fareham South and chairman of the council’s planning committee.

The Liberal Democrats immediately kicked him out of the party but he refused to step down from his civic role. He was eventually forced out after the Standards Board for England disqualified him from public office for two years.

The move to welcome back Mr Pritchard has been attacked by council leader, Sean Woodward, who presided over the authority back in 2002 when the council voted unanimously to boot him off, Councillor Woodward said: “It is a very sad day for democracy when a mainstream political party such as the Liberal Democrats is so hard up for suitable candidates that it has to select someone with a criminal record for defrauding his own council out of housing benefit, someone who has been disqualified from holding public office by the Standards Board for England.

“I cannot believe that the Liberal leader, Councillor Roger Price, a Justice of the Peace, would be willing to certify him to stand for his party.”

When contacted, Mr Pritchard refused to confirm whether he would definitely stand, saying only that it was a “possibility”.

But he added that it was “fairly common” for people who had left a council to stand for re-election.

He said: “I’m just an ordinary member of the public who is as legally entitled to stand as anyone on the electoral roll.”