10.05.18
Former council deputy leader ordered to pay £140,000 in legal fees
The former deputy leader of Sandwell MBC has been ordered to pay legal costs of almost £140,000 after an unsuccessful battle against the local authority ended up at the High Court.
In 2017, Labour’s Mahoob Hussain took the council to a judicial review over the publication of an independent investigation into allegations that he had abused his position as a councillor.
The council said that its sub-committee found Hussain had pushed through the sale of three public toilets well below their market value to a family friend in 2011-12, and instructed officers to reduce or cancel three parking tickets for his wife and sons.
The sub-committee ruled that the councillor had breached the Members’ Code of Conduct 12 times.
Hussain lost the judicial review in June 2017, after which he paid a proportion of the council’s costs, but last week the authority returned to court to reclaim the balance of its legal fees.
The case was heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London and Hussain was ordered to pay a total of £139,292.47 in costs, interest and court fees, including the £50,000 that he has already paid.
It is expected that he will be ordered to pay the outstanding amount over the next two weeks.
The former councillor, who did not stand in last week’s local elections, said he will now be consulting with his lawyers in light of “new information” which he argued could lead to a further legal challenge.
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