Police make their first arrest in City Hall funding scandal

Previously in the Ken Livingstone no-one has done anything wrong, honest guv, it’s all been made up by horrible journalists saga: Lee Jasper, one of London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s top aides, was forced to quit after he failed to declare his links with the recipient of a grant from City Hall.

And now: the police have arrested Greg Nowell on suspicion of money laundering. He ran the Green Badge Taxi School. It is one of the schemes which received funding from the London Development Agency and has been under fire over allegations that it didn’t actually carry out the work it was paid for.

Lee Jasper was heavily involved in the decision to hand over the funds to the Green Badge Taxi School.

UPDATE 2009:

Greg Nowell, the director of another suspect project, the Green Badge Taxi School, has refused to be interviewed, claiming he is “too ill”. However, his is understood to be one of the cases that has been referred to the CPS. He is on police bail. [Evening Standard]