Mulhall supporters revert to type

Searchlight by Sonia Gable | Sunday, 10 December 2006

Two newsagents’ shops in Halifax, West Yorkshire, came under attack by far-right thugs simply for selling the local evening newspaper carrying a story about a crooked BNP councillor.

Richard Mulhall, 38, leader of the BNP “group” of two councillors on Halifax-based Calderdale Council, was found guilty at Teesside Crown Court on four charges of benefit fraud involving more than £3,000.

The local evening newspaper, the Halifax Courier, reported the case under the headline: “BNP leader is a lying cheat” – words based on the damning evidence presented against Mulhall.

Local BNP supporters reverted to type when the paper appeared at newsagents. Two shops, both run by Asian families, came under attack. In one a gang of ten white youths hurled bricks through the windows and shouted racial abuse. The terrified newsagent, his wife and two daughters aged eight and ten cowered inside.

In the other attack the newsagent was abused and manhandled. Copies of the Courier were stolen.

Mulhall, who was not involved in the attacks, came in for more adverse publicity when the Courier ran a poll asking readers to vote on whether or not he should stand down as a councillor because of his conviction. A massive 97 per cent said he should go.

Courier readers were clearly more convinced by the words of the prosecution and the judge than by Mulhall’s denials.

Recorder Felicity Davies said: “There is an aggravating feature in that this defendant has been convicted on the clearest possible evidence of defrauding the council, to which he says he spent 12 years trying to get elected, and he continued to defraud the very people he was elected to serve.

“I take a particularly serious view of a councillor cheating his own electorate.”
Mulhall was claiming jobseeker’s allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit, but failed to notify either Calderdale Council or the Department for Work and Pensions that his partner, Anne Jackson, had started working at a care home.

He then lied on a form and in an interview with a verification officer, saying Miss Jackson did not have a job.

Prosecution barrister Steve Grattage said the offences were motivated by sheer greed. “People can forget things but what people don’t do purposefully is lie, knowingly lie, unless there is a reason for it.

“The only reason to lie is to keep the benefits you know you are not entitled to.”
Mulhall is still clinging on as a councillor but the decision may soon be taken out of his hands. He appears for sentencing on 14 December and prison has not been ruled out. Any sentence of three months or more, even if it is suspended, will result in automatic expulsion from the Council.