A CULTURE of breaking expenses rules and making lavish claims has been revealed by an investigation into affairs at Warwickshire County Council. Witnesses revealed that some politicians often brazenly ignored rules that restricted them to standard class rail travel - regularly splashing out on first class fairs and leaving the public to foot the bill. One former leader of the Conservatives at Shire Hall even admitted that he knew the claims did not “comply with the rule of law” but protested that they did “comply with the rules of common sense”. This revalation comes hot on the heels of the MPs expenses scandal - when several elected politicians were forced from their roles because of their unreasonable claims. The investigation was sparked by a complaint against Nuneaton County Councillor Martin Heatley (Con, Whitestone) from green campaigner Keith Kondakor. He got involved after obtaining details of Cllr Heatley’s expenses which showed him routinely travelling first class on trains and making a series of unusual mileage claims. On Monday the Tribune was the only newspaper to attend a hearing into his conduct - despite Cllr Heatley telling us last week that the hearing didn’t involve him and that we were being misled. He then failed to return four of our calls. But earlier this week we witnessed a panel of three councillors find him guilty of breaching the county council’s own code of conduct. The panel also found that Cllr Heatley - who sits in the county council cabinet as member for resources - claimed mileage for two meetings he didn’t attend, and claimed twice for a 340 mile round-trip to Swansea. At the end of nine-hour hearing Cllr Heatley was told to apologise to the council, undertake re-training, and scale back some of his council duties. The council’s leader, Cllr Alan Farnell (Con, Weddington) stuck by his colleague though, telling the hearing he offered “good value for money”. The hearing heard that the investigation into Cllr Heatley’s expense claims took six-months, and resulted in Garry Rollason, the chief risk and assurance manager presenting an 800-page dossier. The investigation identified that Cllr Heatley claims for more than the shortest route when travelling from his home to Shire Hall and Nuneaton town centre, does not record full details of his travel expenses, and travels first class on train journeys. On one occasion Cllr Heatley’s expense forms revealed he claimed a whopping 56 miles for a two-mile car journey - although he claimed that he made a series of detours and stop-offs before arriving at his final destination. He also always claims 52 miles for the 35-mile trip to Shire Hall - claiming that the 52-mile route is quicker in heavy traffic. Witness Gordon Collett - a former councillor - said that he authorised Cllr Heatley to break the council’s rules and travel first class, because privacy couldn’t be guaranteed in standard class. “If you want the best from your representatives you don’t want them to arrive at meetings unprepared,” he told the hearing. “You want the truth? I’m giving you the truth.” Defending Cllr Heatley, Cllr Farnell said that he regularly took passengers on long journeys and didn’t claim any extra allowance - thus saving the council money. However, independent chairman of the hearing sub-committee, Cllr John Bridgeman, said Cllr Heatley would have only been entitled to an extra penny a mile. Cllr Heatley had been accused of breaching the council’s code of conduct on three counts, however the panel found that he had only breached one of those. Mr Kondakor, who was also present for the hearing, has vowed to appeal against the findings because he believes they were too lenient. “I think we have to make them do it all over again,” he said. “I was extremely disapointed. Now we need a full investigation into the expenses system at Warwickshire County Council.” | 
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