A LONG-SERVING councillor has avoided jail despite admitting eight counts of fraud.

Pierre Oxley, county councillor for Clacton East, applied for about £143,000 in grants for Clacton Sports Club and received about £95,000.

Instead of using the money for what it was intended, he forged invoices from contractors, fiddled the books and used ficticious cheque numbers.

Despite misusing the money he did not benefit personally.

Oxley, 41, of Ladbrooke Road, Clacton, was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court yesterday.

He was also ordered to carry out 300 hours unpaid work and pay £1,500 costs.

Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC said Oxley was a decent and honourable man who made a “grave error of judgement”.

He said: “You put the welfare of your organisation first and ahead of fair play. This is not acceptable.”

Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC said: “You did not do this for your own benefit. You took not a penny for your own personal use.

“It is rare somebody will perpetrate a fraud of this character and scale for any other purpose than his own benefit or that of his family.”

Oxley was given 29 letters of support to place before the judge.

Judge Goldstaub QC said the fraud, carried out between 2011 and 2014, was nonetheless a very serious crime “against society”.

He said: “The maintenance of high standards of trust, honesty and decency of those who serve the public and dispose of public resources on our behalf is vital to the health of our society that is fair and free from corruption.

“Offences of this character damage and corrupt the integrity of our public life and so they impoverish and threaten all of us.”

The fraud was uncovered when VAT errors were spotted and a raid at his home revealed the extent of his duplicity.

Gazette:

  • Chelmsford Crown Court

Stephen Harvey QC, mitigating, said: “In all probability had he bothered to go back and ask the charities if they were prepared to reallocate the money the answer would have been yes.”

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THE disgraced councillor will never stand for public office again.

The jail sentence, even though it was supended, means he cannot continue as a county councillor.

Oxley has been an Essex county councillor for ten years and was on Tendring Council for 16 years until he lost his seat in May last year.

Speaking after the hearing, he said: “There was never an intent for personal gain.

“I fully co-operated with police. This draws a line under it.

“I knew it was over when this started but it was never for personal gain.

“If I had gained I would expect to be somewhere else and not speaking to you.

“My time in public life is probably over. I have done it since in I was 15 or 16, so 26 years now.

“I won’t ever stand again.”

Asked why he committed the fraud, he said: “There were some challenges for this club and organisation, and I have to accept responsibility”.

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THE funding applications related to the fraud include: n £5,391 from Essex Environment Trust intended for a tree-planting programme at Clacton Sports Club;

  • £6,000 from the Big Lottery Fund intended for buying a computer, projector, television, chairs and desks for study facilities at Clacton United FC;
  • £9,500 from the Essex Environment Trust intended for upgrading the pavilion;
  • £83,413 grant from Sport England, of which £42,613 was paid, intended for providing new showers, a new boiler, rain harvesting system, cricket covers, an electronic scoreboard and floodlights at Clacton Sports Club;
  • £10,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund intended for installing a chairlift and new boiler;
  • £10,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund intended to buy trees, bins, signs, picnic tables and for improving paths;
  • £9,500 grant from Essex County Council, of which £4,000 was paid, intended for the purchase of a rainwater harvesting system and cricket nets;
  • £9,500 grant from Essex County Council, of which £7,500 was paid, intended for upgrading a storage area and buying cricket covers.

The fraudulent activity included:

  • Submitting invoices totalling £21,214 for a boiler which had cost £5,400.
  • A forged invoice for cricket covers.
  • Invoices submitted as part of a grant report to the Big Lottery Fund had fictitious cheque numbers on them. The invoices were forgeries.
  • Financial statements were signed by a company who had never done the club’s accounts.
  • Work to upgrade a storage area had incorrect VAT details but Community Initiative Fund paid out. The builder named said the invoices were not from them and they had not carried out any work.