A MARYPORT councillor who made 'serious allegations of fraud and corruption' against councillors and council officers at Allerdale Borough Council - with 'no substantiating evidence' - has been sanctioned by the council for his actions.

Maryport North councillor Iain Greaney was found by a standards hearing on October 10 to have breached Allerdale Borough Council's code of conduct.

The meeting heard how Cllr Alan Pitcher submitted four standards complaints to Allerdale Borough Council about the conduct of Cllr Greaney - two of which were referred to the standards committee.

The complaints were that Mr Greaney had: "Apparently shared confidential documents with a third party and therefore put the council at risk both with reputation and with a current legal case", and secondly had: "Stated without foundation fraudulant activity that, were it true, should have been written into the correct report and the appropriate procedures carried out."

The panel considered that there were two elements of the complaint which needed to be considered.

The first related to Cllr Greaney's actions in sharing confidential information with Cumbria Police, without using any of the council's own procedures to raise concerns.

The hearing found that although Cllr Greaney had failed to follow council procedures for reporting wrongdoing, he had not broken the code of conduct by reporting concerns of possible fraud to the police.

The second part of the complaint was triggered by the actions of Cllr Greaney in sending an email to members of the council on March 6 2021, making 'serious allegations' of corruption within the council.

His email followed what the investigating officer described as a 'very difficult' meeting of March 3, 2021, which they suggested 'acted as a catalyst' for the email.

The report said: "In the email, Cllr Greaney makes serious allegations of fraud and corruption regarding a councillor and a senior officer of the council and advised councillors that his allegations were being investigated by the police."

Cllr Greaney gave evidence that he was 'concerned' with 'the relationships between officers and political groups' and felt he could not pursue his concerns through the channels available at Allerdale - however he acknowledged that he should not have sent the email he did to all councillors.

The panel unanimously upheld the decision of the investigating officer, that Cllr Greaney had failed to respect the 'impartiality and integrity of the authority's statutory officers' noting that the council had policies and procedures in place to provide protection against wrongdoing.

The panel also considered the fact that Cllr Greaney felt he could not approach officers, but said this did not explain why he sent the information to such a wide body of members.

The allegations of the ongoing police investigation that councillor had alleged in the email had not been correct, the panel said.

After the panel's decision, Cllr Greaney re-stated concerns he had with improprieties in the process, however acknowledged he had no further eveidence to present.

The standards committee considered a wide range of sanctions for Cllr Greaney's actions before deciding on four:

  • a formal letter would be sent to councillor Greaney
  • the panel would report its findings to full council
  • a recommendation would be made to Cllr Greaney's group leader that he be removed from his role of vice-chair on Overview and Scrutiny
  • one-on-one training would be arranged for the councillor around the relevant policies and procedures