‘Unintelligent’ Calderdale BNP leader escapes jail

Sonia Gable | Saturday, 13 January 2007 Source: Searchlight

Richard Mulhall, the BNP's group leader on Calderdale Council, escaped a prison term when he appeared for sentencing at Teesside Crown Court at the end of 2006.

Mulhall, 38, had been convicted by a jury in October on four counts of benefit fraud. He had been claiming jobseeker's allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit but failed to notify either Calderdale Council in Halifax or the Department for Work and Pensions that his partner had started working.

On 14 December the court sentenced him to 200 hours of unpaid work. Recorder Felicity Davies said: "You will be punished by being made to work for the benefit of the community that you have cheated".

He was also ordered to pay court costs of £2,000 and to pay back the jobseekers allowance to the Department for Work and Pensions. He had already repaid the housing benefit and council tax benefit to Calderdale Council.

At his trial Mulhall, one of two remaining BNP councillors on Calderdale Council, had pleaded not guilty to charges involving claims amounting to £3,002.95 in benefits, including £1,833.82 in housing benefit, £603.18 in jobseekers' allowance and £565.95 in council tax benefit between 2003 and 2005.

He was tried in Teesside, after complaining that he could not get a fair trial in West Yorkshire.

Mulhall was leader of the three-strong group of BNP councillors in Calderdale until the May 2006 elections when the group was reduced to a pair.

The prosecution said Muhall had been claiming benefits legitimately but failed to notify the benefits authorities when his partner started work. He was charged with two counts of failing to notify the authorities of a change in circumstances and two counts of making a false statement to claim benefits.

Muhall admitted giving false information on a benefit form but said he was confused. Prosecutor Steve Grattage said: "The fact is, you were not confused, you lied, you knew what you were doing and you wanted to keep the benefit you were receiving".

Mulhall said: "The information I gave was incorrect because I did not think it would impact on the amount of benefits." Mulhall stated on a form, and to a verification officer, that his partner did not have a job. He said he signed a form without reading a warning declaration.

The prosecutor asked: "As an intelligent person, did you not realise you should read that before signing?"

Mulhall replied: "Without wanting to put myself down I would not class myself as an intelligent person just because I am a local councillor."

After the jury had returned its verdict Recorder 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."

After his conviction, two newsagents' shops in Halifax came under attack by far-right thugs simply for selling the local evening newspaper carrying the story.

The Halifax Courier reported the case under the headline: "BNP leader is a lying cheat". 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.

Unfortunately Mulhall's conviction does not mean he will be booted off the council as only a prison sentence of three months or more would result in automatic disqualification. But he is not fit to represent council taxpayers and if he had any honour he would already have resigned. In a poll carried out by the Courier, a massive 97% of readers said he should go.