JUSTICE must be done and seen to be done after Lord Hanningfield is arrested by Essex Police in connection with expenses fraud, say the Essex Lib Dems.
The group’s leader, Cllr Tom Smith-Hughes, said: “The Liberal Democrats knew that there were very serious allegations against Lord Hanningfield which had been referred by Essex County Council to the police. Justice must be done and seen to be done.
“Essex Liberal Democrats had, some time ago, called for a full investigation into possible misuse of council facilities, including use of chauffeur driven cars and corporate credit cards, and had demanded that the results of the investigation were made public to Essex residents and council taxpayers.”
He said that they entitled to:
• Know if and how public money was being mis-spent
• Receive full assurances that proper procedures are now in place to ensure that inadequacies in the council’s systems and apparent failure to tackle concerns raised by the Liberal Democrats over three years ago have now been fully confronted
• That appropriate measures are now in place to stop abuses ever happening again
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