Herne Bay councillor cleared of corruption charges - but town businessman convicted

CANTERBURY City Councillor, Roger Matthews, was today (Friday) cleared by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court of living rent free in return for backing the interests of his landlords in the council chamber. As a result of his acquittal he was also granted the legal costs run up by his defence team.

However, his co-accused, Herne Bay businessman, property developer and estate agent, Julian Brealy, was convicted and warned that jail could be on the cards. He will be sentenced on April 13 and has been granted conditional bail until then and ordered to surrender his passport.

Granting bail, Judge David Griffith-Jones warned Brealy: "I make it absolutely clear that in granting bail and agreeing to order pre sentence reports I am not giving any indication that there will be anything other than an immediate prison sentence."

During his trial for corruption it was alleged that Cllr Matthews ran up around £36,000 in rent arrears living in a property owned by one of Brealy's companies and that in return he had backed the interests of Brealy and his companies in the Council Chamber.

This morning though after two days of deliberation the jury found Cllr Matthews not guilty of the charge. Around two hours later though the jury came back and convicted Brealy.

During the hearing it was alleged that over a course of around six years Cllr Matthews, of Beltinge Road, Herne Bay, a councillor for Herne Bay since 1995, lived rent free in property owned by one of Brealy's companies, Hollanby Estates, and in return backed the interests of Brealy and his companies in the council chamber.

However, Cllr Matthews had denied ever voting in the council on any matter involving Brealy or his companies and denied ever talking to Brealy on planning matters.

The former Liberal Democrat, who has represented Greenhill and Eddington as an independent since being ditched by the party when he was charged, told the jury that any-one who knew him would know he was "not on the take."

And he had added: "There is no way I could smooth things through planning. I would need to get other councillors to support me. There are 19 councillors."

As far as his rent arrears were concerned he had said that he still owed the rent and was facing repossession proceedings. He said he had ignored letters from his landlords asking about his plans to pay off the arrears and told the court he had never received any offer to be let off the arrears.

During his evidence he had told the court that he lived a frugal lifestyle telling the jury : "I have no luxuries in life. My furniture and television are second hand."

In denying the corruption allegations Brealy had told the court that far from helping his companies there had been times when Cllr Matthews had voted against them.

He had been asked if it had ever occurred to him what a member of the public would think if they knew that a councillor was voting on applications put forward by his companies when they were tenants of theirs and had not paid rent for six years.

He had replied that it was "an impossible situation" adding "There have been times he has voted against us."

When it was pointed out that there had also been times Matthews had voted in favour of applications by Brealy's companies he said that he had thought Matthews had declared an interest and continued : "It is not a benefit we have given him. You know very well we were in an impossible situation."

He denied that benefit was being "given" to Matthews.

"We were not giving him a benefit. It was being taken," he told the court.