A FORMER Bratton Parish Council Clerk has pleaded guilty to stealing £26,900 from Council funds over an 11 year period.
Anita Whittle who lives in Bratton pleaded guilty at Salisbury Magistrates’ Court last month to a total of four charges brought against her which included two charges of theft by employee, one of fraud by false representation and another of obtaining property by deception.
The court heard how between May 29th, 2013, and December 12th, 2015, she stole £11,372.66 from Bratton Parish Council, during her time as the parish clerk, and a further £600 between April 1st, 2014 and April 6th, 2015.
She pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation as between January 14th, 2007 and July 31st, 2016, she used £13,107.63 in cheques raised on behalf of the parish council which were to be paid into Wiltshire Council’s pension fund for her own personal use.
Finally, to the charge of obtaining property by deception she also pleaded guilty as between December 1st, 2005 and February 15th, 2007, she took £1,821.01 from the parish council that were supposed to go into her pension when in fact they were retained for her personal use.
The scandal was discovered by Bratton Parish Councillor Jeff Ligo, who after joining the council in July 2016, found serious anomalies with the accounting procedures in the council. At his first meeting in July Cllr Ligo identified that the papers, in relation to the financial year 2015/16, the clerk was asking the Council to approve for submission to the Council’s external auditor were incomplete and unsatisfactory.
At the August meeting he reported that the external auditor had copied to him the papers submitted for the previous three Annual Audit reports for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15.
He had identified from the minutes that these submissions had never been approved by Council.
Councillor Jeff Ligo who was appointed as Chair of the Council at the Annual General Meeting in May said, “The Council is pleased that the investigation has been completed and we can now move forward. There is no getting away from the fact that this situation has been a terrible shock for everyone in the village.
“Mrs Whittle has lived in Bratton for a long time and was valued by the community. She has let the whole village down by stealing significant sums of money, preparing bogus submissions to the Council’s external auditors.
“Rules and regulations must be adhered to by councillors to stop this happening. I believe this could have been prevented if council members had properly understood their roles and responsibilities. One of the priorities for the new Council will be to ensure all the councillors understand their duties.
“We now have six new councillors which is a breath of fresh air for the village and we are looking forward to the next council meeting on Tuesday 13th June in the Pavilion, at 7.15pm.”
At the court hearing, prosecutor Vyvyan Thatcher said that this case should go straight to Crown Court as it exceeded the sentencing powers of the Magistrates. The date for her Crown Court case has not been fixed yet and Anita Whittle was released on unconditional bail.
