UPDATE (14/7/22): Barred Tory Wiltshire PCC Jonathon Seed Found Not Guilty - Our Campaign for DBS Checks For ALL Candidates

 

Lib Dem or Tory, Same Old Story

UPDATE (14/7/22)

The BBC is reporting that Jonathon Seed has been found not guilty of making a false declaration.

Journalist Rupert Evelyn, who did the original investigation and broke the story nationwide and across the West Country, has said on Twitter:

Jonathon Seed is absolutely right when he says the @Conservatives knew we were asking questions. They were explicitly asked, as was he, prior to polling day. The questions were put at Director level to the party. Here’s the timeline https://t.co/F6SiAB0WG6

— Rupert Evelyn (@rupertevelyn) July 11, 2022

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UPDATE (7/7/22)

The Oxford Mail reporter Tom Seaward has reported that "Judge questions CPS as Jonathon Seed back in court over Wiltshire election".

In the report, Seaward says:

"A JUDGE will summon a senior crown prosecutor to court to explain why they plan to drop election fraud charges against former police and crime commissioner candidate Jonathon Seed.

But Judge Michael Gledhill QC refused to accept Ms Sadler’s explanation as to why the prosecution had dropped and adjourned the case for a week and ordered the attendance of a senior CPS lawyer to ‘tell me in public why this decision has been taken’.

Having already put the case back for five hours to enable the prosecutor to obtain more detailed instructions, the judge adjourned the case until Monday, July 11, for a senior CPS lawyer to appear before him. He allowed the lawyer to attend court via video link, but said he would have preferred him ‘to come along and look me in the eye’. 

...

In a parting shot, the judge warned Ms Sadler: “I don’t want platitudes, I want reasons.”

Following the hearing, Seed said: “Clearly, it has been a difficult day and this is not a result we’d have hoped for today, but the judge is absolutely right to satisfy himself as to why the CPS dropped this case so late in the day or, indeed, why they brought it in the first place.”

We continue to follow the case with interest, and continue our campaign for ALL candidates and all elected representatives to have to face independent criminal records checks.

UPDATE (9/6/22)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped the charges against Jonathon Seed, who was due to face trial next month for making a false statement on his nomination papers when standing for Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner.

Local Democracy Reporter Ben Paessler reported via the Salisbury Journal website:

A CPS spokesperson said: “We have a duty to keep cases under continuing review and, following a further review, we concluded that there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”

So there will be no trial, which we previously reported below as going ahead in July 2022.

Mr Seed has said that he is "relieved" and that he will be commenting further "once my case has been formally withdrawn at Oxford Crown Court."

Responding to the news, Leader of Somerset Independents Andrew Pope, says:

Andrew Pope

"This case shows exactly why independent checks are necessary. Self-certification is a total nonsense when it comes to criminal records checks.

We will be continuing our campaign for DBS checks to be carried out prior to the Returning Officer declaring any and all candidates as validly nominated.

This would protect the public purse from unnecessary re-runs of elections as happened in this case, protect the public from harm and protect council officers from harm too."

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UPDATE: Jonathon Seed is to face to trial in July 2022, according to the BBC, in relation to his candidacy to be the Conservative PCC for Wiltshire.

Whether it is Lib Dems or Tories, it's the same old story. There are so many other councillors and MPs who have been found guilty of criminal offences, and also standing trial like Mr Seed.

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1, 2, 3 and counting...

1. Now in September 2021 ... the Lib Dems' Former Council Leader of South Somerset District Council Ric Pallister has been found guilty of 18 charges  here in Somerset. As reported by Reach plc on SomersetLive, Pallister faces prison.
   
2. In May 2021 Tory Wiltshire Councillor Jonathon Seed who was convicted of drink driving and barred from becoming Police and Crime Commissioner. As investigated and reported by ITV West Country, Seed faces a police investigation into his candidacy, yet continues as a Wiltshire councillor. Meanwhile, the Tories got another candidate to win in the re-run election that cost the taxpayer over £1 million! We have asked serious questions of Wiltshire Council who have confirmed that they don't DBS-check all councillors. This is despite Seed's disbarment.
   
3. Also in May 2021, and reported by ITV the Lib Dems' Former Devon County Council Leader Brian Greenslade (Devon) was found guilty of sexual and indecent assault.
   

We ask: HOW MANY MORE COUNCILLORS, MPs and PCCs - and candidates - are crooked?

Somerset Independents and its supporters have been campaigning for those seeking elected public office to have mandatory and independent criminal records checks. 

As shown on this website and in our campaign materials, we say that ALL candidates and all sitting councillors, members of Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner, MUST by law have mandatory independent checks on criminal records by the Disclosures and Barring Service (previously CRB). 

The national political parties could have brought this in by changing the law. But they chose not to. Why? What do they have to hide?

The Lib Dems and Tories have a lot to hide seems, from those above here in Somerset, in Wiltshire and in Devon found guilty of criminal offences - and that's just for this year. 

Pallister, Seed and Greenslade are just some of the elected officials who have been found out. What about those who haven't been brought to justice?

Instead, the law allows councils to do their own checks - or NOT to do them.

Research conducted by Somerset Independents has shown that many councils do not do these checks. We asked all four district councils and Somerset County Council. Only the County and Sedgemoor District Council conducted DBS checks for all councillors.

All three district councils that do not do the DBS checks are run by the Liberal Democrats: 

Mendip District Council

South Somerset District Council

Somerset West and Taunton District Council

Yet Ric Pallister and Brian Greenslade were both Liberal Democrats when they committed their offences.

These convictions of elected officials proves that our campaign is justified and that our campaigning is vindicated. 

We know that Somerset residents agree with us.

But do local councillors agree with us?
 

Local councillors in Somerset did very little to back our campaign, despite us contacting all 250+ district and county councillors. Some said they do back our campaign, but took little or no action to support the campaign.

Most of Somerset's councillors are from the national political parties. 

Some of Somerset's councillors even suggested that carrying out such checks should be done by the political parties, and not an independent body like the DBS - well.. they would say that wouldn't they! Seed and the Tories apparently carried out checks - yet this is now subject to a police investigation after Seed was disbarred from becoming PCC.

Leader of Somerset Independents Andrew Pope says:

Andrew Pope

"Residents must be able to trust their elected representatives, but people like Pallister, Seed and Greenslade further undermine trust in politicians and the national political parties.

So we at Somerset Independents ask again - how many more councillors, MPs and PCCs, and candidates for those offices, are crooked?

We say that it has to be made the law that these checks are done by election returning officers, by all councils and by Parliament.

Professor of Local Government at De Montfort University and the University of Ghent, Colin Copus, is backing our campaign. 

We are in touch with the Association of Democratic Service Officers (ADSO) and the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA). 

We hope that they will back our campaign too. It is council officers that are put at risk, as well as the residents who become victims of criminals like Pallister, Seed and Greenslade.

Join our campaigns, become a registered supporter and help to get Somerset better represented for its residents and to protect residents and council officers."