UK’s worst councillor?
He’s breached code of conduct 12 times but kept his job! Is this …
A LABOUR councillor who used his position and influence to get a family member’s parking tickets quashed has been allowed to keep his job – despite a £500,000 investigation into his behaviour.
Mahboob Hussain also pushed through the sale of three council-owned toilet blocks to a relative for almost £100,000 less than market value.
Sandwell Council has spent more than half a million pounds investigating him after he denied the allegations. It found he had breached the local authority’s code of conduct 12 times – but it has no power to sack him.
Instead, Mr Hussain, 57, has been ordered to undergo training on property transactions and his role as councillor.
He has also been barred from speaking to officers directly.
He had contacted council officers about parking tickets issued to his wife and sons, asking for them to be cancelled.
One, issued to his son Azeem Hafeez for stopping in a red route, was reduced from £105 to £35. Two more, issued to another son, Adnan Hussain, and his wife, Nasreen Begurn, also for stopping in a restricted area, were cancelled completely even though bailiffs had already been instructed and no appeals lodged.
Last night, Mr Hussain, who has been a councillor for Oldbury in the West Midlands since 1995, was facing calls to stand down over the scandal.
Scott Chapman, chairman of Sandwell Conservatives, said: ‘It’s absolutely startling that a Labour councillor can breach the code of conduct 12 times, and get away with what equates to a tap on the wrist.’
‘We want to see Cllr Hussain sacked and removed from council and a proper police investigation into financial irregularities.’ An investigation into Mr Hussain was launched after allegations were first made in 2014. He was suspended by Labour in May 2016, when the council published the Wragge report. It said that in 2012 he had ‘pushed the sale through’ of three public toilet blocks for £35,000 to the uncle of five of his grandchildren, despite the land, which was set to go to a public auction the following month, being independently valued at £130,000. It claimed Mr Hussain knew about the higher valuation, but chose to ignore it and failed to inform the council of his relationship with the buyer.
He initially denied the man was a relative but later conceded Abdul Naeem Quyam was known to him and was a visitor to his home. One of the three toilet blocks sold two years later for £40,000. The report said Mr Hussain did not profit financially but the council suffered a loss, adding he overstepped his role as a councillor in the sale. Sandwell Council said it would be seeking to recoup some of the costs it has incurred.
Mr Hussain has always denied wrongdoing and claims he is the victim of a ‘political witchhunt’ by local MPs, who have ‘undermined’ and ‘demonised’ him.
He said last night: ‘My passion is the community and I [will] not allow my character to be attacked due to political differences.
‘I will use everything at my disposal to clear my name, and expose those who are doing their utmost to defame the party, and its people through these difficult times.’