Cllr Bertha Joseph suspended for using charity money to buy ball gown (From Harrow Times)

Cllr Bertha Joseph suspended for using charity money to buy ball gown

1:15pm Thursday 15th October 2009 in

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A FORMER Mayor of Brent has been suspended for taking money intended for a charity ball and spending it on clothes.

Councillor Bertha Joseph, who represented the borough as mayor in 1998/99 and again in 2007/08, has been found guilty of bringing her office into disrepute and using her position as mayor to gain an advantage.

The council's standards committee heard on Tuesday evening Cllr Joseph had used sponsorship raised for a Mayor's Charity Ball that she helped organise to buy herself a ball gown.

She was also found to have failed to declare two gifts from local businesses totalling £900, and the committee has recommended she give the money to the current Mayor of Brent's charity.

Cllr Joseph has been found guilty of breaching the code of conduct and suspended her from all duties for six months.

The representative for Kensal Green, who switched parties from Labour to Tory in 2007, did not turn up for the committee hearing.

However, it is understood she is considering an appeal against the decision.