Councillor wins candidate appeal
Reporter: by JANICE BARKER
Date published: 03 February 2009
AN Oldham councillor who was taken to court by the local authority for benefit fraud has been taken on as a potential Labour candidate.
Councillor Aqeel Ali Salamat originally failed to get on to the Labour panel of candidates for the 2010 elections.
But last week, three North-West regional party officials allowed his appeal.
The St Mary’s ward councillor’s current term of office ends in 2010.
He was convicted in 2007 of claiming £295 in council-tax benefits while working as a taxi driver, reduced to £15 on appeal.
He was formerly a Liberal Democrat councillor but was dropped by that party in 2005 when the benefit fraud inquiry began.
He then became an independent and joined Labour after the 2007 elections.
Today he said: “I am pleased that my appeal was successful.
“I am not proud about what’s happened but I made a simple administrative mistake at a distressing time in my life when my wife was in hospital with a facial palsy and I was working and looking after three children.
“I am grateful for the numerous letters of support from colleagues in the party and other organisations in my ward.”
But a councillor who admitted sex with a 16-year-old schoolgirl has not been selected.
Serving Alexandra Ward councillor Asaf Ali failed to get his name on the panel of Labour candidates when his appeal was heard last week.
He was first elected as a Labour councillor in 2002 but became an independent last year, after resigning from the council’s Labour group, citing personal reasons, although he said he would stay a party member.
Councillor Ali was arrested in 2007 on suspicion of raping the girl on her first day at work. He admitted sex but said it was consensual, which the girl denied.
No charges were brought after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to go to court. His term of office also expires in 2010.
