Fire chief in car auction case is found not guilty

A chief fire officer has been cleared of fraud after making the winning bid of £500 for one of his own brigade’s Land Rovers in an auction he was running.

Stewart Edgar, 53, won the Defender after asking a third-party company to bid on his behalf.

A Birmingham Crown Court jury unanimously found the former head of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service not guilty yesterday.

Prosecutors had claimed the decorated fire chief, who was in line for an OBE before the incident, had acted “dishonestly”. However, the jury, clearing Mr Edgar, of Braehead Drive, Carnoustie, Angus, accepted that he had made “an honest mistake”.