Council leader says disputed cash was handed over

The leader of Ashfield District Council has said "every penny" of thousands of pounds of grant money he is accused of taking was spent on the community.

Ashfield Independent councillor Jason Zadrozny is accused of setting up the Ashfield Heritage Society (AHS) in 2018 before applying for £7,500 of county council funding and transferring it into his personal account.

During his trial at Northampton Crown Court on Friday, he said he handed most of the money over to a colleague who was "completely honest".

But the 46-year-old, of Stanton Hill, who has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of fraud and four counts of tax evasion, admitted the paperwork he submitted for the loans was "terrible".

Sam Robinson KC, defending, asked Zadrozny why the AHS had been set up.

He said there was mounting concern from residents over the state of local memorials in the run-up to the centenary of the end of World War One and a fellow councillor and close friend, Tony Brewer, was particularly upset over the lack of action.

To remedy this, Zadrozny said he applied for £7,500 from a fund allocated to county councillors using a bank account he set up in the name of the AHS.

He admitted the society was simply a name used to access the money but said he was confident "every penny" was used for community purposes.

He also accepted the address used for the application, 213 Forest Road, was incorrect.

"I have no idea how I put an address which did not exist.

"It may have been I misheard, it may be a transcription error but I can't remember, I wish I could," he said.

Robinson asked: "Did you fill out a form which was essentially a lie in order to deceive, in order to gain £7,500?"

The defendant replied: "Absolutely not."

Zadrozny said the paperwork for funding applications was "terrible", adding: "I wouldn't be sitting in the dock if I filled it out much more clearly".

The money was taken from the society's account in three withdrawals in March and April 2018 and Zadrozny said it was all handed over to Brewer, who died of covid in 2020.

Zadrozny said he never doubted Brewer's integrity and "goodness shone out of him".

He added he never checked what the money had been spent on and simply "cracked on".

Another charge relates to £1,200, which was allocated to a cinema club, which never held any events.

When the police started making inquiries about Zadrozny's handling of council cash in 2021, it was found the cash in the club's file in his house was not made up of the same notes as originally withdrawn in 2019.

Zadrozny rejected the suggestion from Robinson that he had replaced the money after being "caught with his hands in the cookie jar", instead claiming he had swapped the original paper notes when they were being phased out for new polymer ones.

But the defendant agreed with Robinson's suggestion that each of these cases "looked a mess" and "looked fishy".

Zadrozny said: "With hindsight, it doesn't look as transparent as it should."

He added: "I'm not somebody who is careful with paperwork, I'm not careful with money, I have a bit of a cavalier attitude. It overwhelms me sometimes.

"And quite frankly, as bad as this might sound, this was small amounts of money when I was dealing with a council that was running with big, big things, particularly during covid.

"We were dealing with grants of millions of pounds, which we had to hand out quickly and my attention to detail has, granted, been very bad."

Zadrozny also admitted he owed tax for income from various properties, but insisted this was down to his believing he only needed to pay tax on profit from these.

He described this belief as "very wrong", but rejected the suggestion he was out to "fiddle the taxman" as he always declared his properties via the council.

The trial continues.

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