(Title Image: Wales Online via Bridgend Council)
Cllr. David Owen (Ind, Nantymoel) was found guilty of conspiracy to steal/handling stolen goods, and his wife found guilty of perverting the course of justice, at Newport Crown Court.
An off-road vehicle worth ÂŁ9,000 was stolen and sold to the councillor for ÂŁ5,000. Both are due to be formally sentenced on Monday March 2nd 2020, having been released on bail. There could be an appeal.
Wales Online reports the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict yesterday afternoon (7th February 2020).
Cllr. Owen – an unaffiliated member of BCBC’s Independent Alliance – currently has one of the worst attendance records of any Bridgend county councillor, attending just 27 sessions out of an expected 84 (by my count) since September 2017 (32%).
Although any councillor not attending meetings for 6 months is automatically dismissed for non-attendance, there are rules for disqualification/expulsion based on prison sentences (including suspended sentences) of 3 months or more.
Surprisingly, there haven’t been any by-elections at county level in Bridgend since the last Welsh local government elections in 2017, though I suspect the odds of one have just gotten much shorter.