Council leader allegedly “lied” on nomination forms to gain political advantage

UPDATED: THE leader of Warrington Borough Council, Russ Bowden, “lied” in his nomination forms to stand as a councillor in order to gain a political advantage, it was alleged today, Tuesday.

He deliberately misled the returning officer when he filled in his forms for the local election in April 2021, claimed Sarah Griffin, prosecuting.

She told a Liverpool Crown Court jury that he delivered the home address form to the returning officer asserting that Applecross Close, Birchwood, was his home address.

Miss Griffin claimed that “this was false…..he knew this was false.”
She told the jurors that he had lived there but moved out in June 2019 and the sole resident was his ex-wife who was in receipt of single persons council tax discount.
The 53-year-old defendant, of Lulworth Place, Lower Walton, Warrington, is on trial denying an offence of making a false statement in a nomination paper on April 6, 2021.

Opening the prosecution case Miss Griffin told the jury of six women and six men that while lying on his nomination forms “might not sound like the worst offence in the world the Crown say that he has broken the laws that underpin our very democracy and the right we all have to be confident that the politicians we choose to represent us have reached that position honestly.”
She claimed that when he filled in the forms to be a Labour councillor he deliberately misled the returning officer and, by definition, the electorate.

The court heard that in May 2021 all out local government elections were due to be held in Warrington and Bowden had been the Leader of the Council since 2019 and a councillor in the Birchwood ward. On April 6, 2021 Bowden entered the council offices and handed his nomination papers to Alison Mccormick, who was the council’s electoral services manager and the returning officer.
He declared on the forms that his home address was Applecross Close, Birchwood which placed him inside the ward he wanted to represent.
“The prosecution say that the reason that Mr Bowden falsely provided his home address as Applecross Close, Birchwood and not Lulworth Place, was to gain a political advantage – so that the electors in the Birchwood ward on learning of his home address, at the very least from the voting card, would consider him to be a ‘local man’ who lived in their ward,” alleged Miss Griffin.
“After the local election the council received information that Mr Bowden was not living at that address even though he had been registered to vote there. “
She said an investigation was carried out initially by the council officials and council tax records were checked. It was discovered that records showed that the sole resident of Applecross was Mrs Bowden, who had been in receipt of Single Person’s Council Tax Discount since October 2019.
“The records also showed that Russell Bowden had moved out of Applecross in June 2019 and that he had phoned the council himself to set up his own council tax payment on another property, Lulworth Place, Lower Walton, where he also claimed Single Person’s Council Tax Discount,” said Miss Griffin.
“The police now became involved and the investigation continued. Police recalled that the defendant had been spoken to previously, in September 2020, about the whether someone else had used the correct home address or not.

“The Crown say that this is significant because it demonstrates that he was aware of how important it is to make an honest declaration about your address and also because at the time the home address he provided was Lulworth Place.”
The police later discovered a letter that they had sent to the defendant at Applecross in July 2020, had been returned to sender, not at this address.’
“The police also found a recorded telephone call that the defendant had made to them in December 2020, in which he had stated that his address was Lulworth Place.”

An officer went to the Applecross Close address in October 2021 to establish if it was the defendant’s address and a neighbour Sharon Smith-O’Malley – known as Debbie – said she had become aware in 2018 that the couple were splitting up.
She said she had only seen him there about three times a year since they split up and the last time she saw him was about four months earlier.
She said she remembered his Mercedes Benz with a loud exhaust. “A car, which, as the police discovered when they approached the DVLA was registered to Mr Bowden with the registered address at Lulworth Place,” said Miss Griffin.
Mr Bowden was voluntarily interviewed by the police under caution on September 2, 2021 and answered “no comment”. In a prepared statement he asserted that Applecross was his permanent home and that he had only moved out of the address due to the problems in his marriage, she said.

Alison McCormick, the electoral services manager for Warrington Borough Council and also the returning officer for the local elections, told the court that candidates do not have to live in the ward in which they are standing for election.
Cross-examined by defence barrister Tanveer Quresh she said that “probably” a lot of councillors do not live in the wards they represent. She said that they accept the nomination declarations at face value, “We don’t investigate.”

The case continues