Political

Ex-Tory deputy leader faces police probe over claims he lied on election paperwork

Investigations by the Derby Telegraph show, the newspaper says, that the former Tory deputy leader in Derby used a false address on his nomination papers in this May’s local elections.

Following his election earlier this year, Richard Smalley was then swiftly elected by Tory councillors to be their deputy leader. But he then resigned from the council “for personal reasons” just 10 days after the council elections.

The newspaper has interviewed a man who lives at the address Smalley gave on his official election paperwork. That man says of Richard Smalley:

He’d got his house up for sale and he wanted to go for elections and he asked me if he could use my address to redirect some mail while he looked for a house in Allestree … I didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. I wish I’d not done it now. I was only doing a mate a favour.

However, giving a false address on election paperwork is a legal offence.

The police say they are investigating several issues about addresses given for the May elections. Several, because the news about Richard Smalley comes only a few days after a Ukip councillor, John Evans, appeared in court also over claims he used a false address.

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