Despite being "surprised and saddened" on being charged with fraud a month ago, former Deputy Mayor Ian Clement coughed to misusing his corporate credit card yesterday. Instead of lunching council leaders, Clement had in fact been taking out his girlfriend and a PR executive. After pleading guilty, he sounded far more contrite:
"I have failed to live up to the high standards of office that were properly expected of me."
Yes; yes you did. Clement has been given 100 hours of community service - so look forward to him wearing a high-vis jacket painting a church near you soon - a suspended jail term, costs of £1k to pay and is also subject to a 12 week, 9pm-6am curfew, which we don't quite understand. He's been convicted of fraud, not throwing fireworks through people's letterboxes. Anyway, this is proving an extremely costly £156: not only does Clement now have a criminal record and have to endure gleeful tales of his excess, he's also having difficulty finding work and paying his mortgage. Truly a morality tale for our times. (Image by TheTruthAbout... under a Creative Commons licence)
