Councillor spent Inverness charity car boot sales cash, fraud investigator claims
John Holden arrives at court for trial.
A SHERIFF heard today an Inverness councillor is believed to have used money from charity car boot sales for personal use.
John Holden also had undeclared income of nearly £250,000 between 2002 and 2008 and his partner over £50,000 while he was claiming income support and council tax relief, it was also alleged.
Highland Council fraud investigator Veronica Batchelor told Inverness Sheriff Court Holden used over £37,000 from what she believed to be a car boot sale account, for his personal use.
Some of the money was spent on foreign holidays and some went on monthly repayments for what she believed to be the purchase of a car.
He also made payments of £26,100 over a period of 15 months from December 2004 to a Sean Holden, bank statements revealed.
Further details of Holden’s personal finances continued to emerge on the third day of his trial before Sheriff Ian Abercrombie at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Holden (62), of Teal Avenue, Inverness, represents Inverness South on HIghland Council.
He has denied falsely claiming income support between January 1999 and August 2008 in excess of £34,000 and council tax benefit of £6,925.24 and single occupancy of more than £2,309.73 by claiming he lived alone, had no capital and was not in employment between January 6, 1999 and August 31, 2008.
An alternative to the council tax fraud charge is that he knowingly failed to notify Highland Council of his change of circumstances, that he lived with his wife, had capital and was in employment, and that his wife had capital and was in employment.
He faces a further charge of failing to give prompt notification to the Benefits Agency and the Department for Work and Pensions of his change of circumstances, which he knew would affect his entitlement to income support.
He is charged with failing to notify them that he no longer lived alone and that he had capital and was in employment and that his wife had capital and was in employment, thereby obtaining income support in excess of £34,337.48 to which he was not entitled.
In court today Miss Batchelor gave a breakdown of income that hadn’t been declared by Holden between 2002 and 2008 totalling £249,951.
The annual figures ranged from between £12,224 and £85,509 which included a payment into his Bank of Scotland account on August 8, 2004, of £65,100 from local solicitors Macleod and McCallum.
She said Mary Ewen, who later married Holden, had undeclared income of £52,145 during the period.
Miss Batchelor said in 2007, the year he was elected to Highland Council, Holden had income of £56,016 and he failed to declare his councillor’s allowance on top of that which would have taken it to a figure of £64,259.
The fraud investigator said she discovered a pay-in book for a car boot sale account and she went into that account and lifted items for her analysis which she felt were not pertaining to the car boot sale but for personal use.
Bank statements she said didn’t mention it was a car boot sale account but she believed it was, and Holden was the sole signatory to the account.
Payments were made to mobile phone company Orange, various pubs and restaurants, local health club Fitness First, Fairways Leisure, and there were overseas withdrawals when she thought the couple were on holiday in Turkey.
Yesterday the court had been told that Holden had invested £7000 in an ISA in April 2007, at the same time Mary Ewan, who is now his wife Mary Holden, opened an ISA with £7000. The couple also created an £11,00 joint investment bond was also set by the couple paid out of Holden’s bank account.No income or capital was declared to Highland Council between 1999 and August 2008.
The court also heard how Holden lent £54,000 to a woman named Donna Wilson in November 2003.
The trial continues.
