The Ombudsman received a complaint that a Member (“the Member”) of Cyngor Gwynedd (“the County Council”) breached the Code of Conduct.
It was alleged that the Member had received a Conditional Caution for “Fraud by abuse of position” by attempting to defraud his employer, through the misappropriation of funds.
It was considered that the Member’s conditional caution and misconduct could reasonably be regarded as having brought his office as member and his County Council into disrepute and was therefore suggestive of a breach of paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Code of Conduct.
Our finding, under section 69 of the Local Government Act 2000, was that our report on our investigation be referred to the President of the Adjudication Panel for Wales, for adjudication by a tribunal.
The Tribunal found that the Former Member had failed to comply with the Code of Conduct. Its sanction was to disqualify the Former Member from being a member of any Relevant Authority, as set out in the Local Government Act 2000, for a period of 3 years.
The Case Tribunal’s decision is available here .