Ashfield council leader tried to pin blame for fake organisation on well-respected local figure

Ashfield’s council leader set up a fake organisation with county council funds and tried to pin the blame on a well-respected local figure who died the year before, a jury has heard.

Northampton Crown Court was told how Jason Zadrozny opened a bank account in the name of “Ashfield Heritage Society” (AHS) in February 2018, before allocating £3,500 from his councillor’s divisional fund, and £7,500 from those of fellow Ashfield Independent councillors.

But there was no record of the AHS, if it ever really existed, nor any proof of it spending any money on anything, said James Varley KC, prosecuting.

All the monies from the AHS account were withdrawn in cash, and he was the only person who had the cards and the chequebook.

An investigation was triggered and Zadrozny told police Tony Brewer had set up the AHS to look after war memorials and he had agreed to sort out the bank account for him, but wasn’t involved with the AHS.

He had earlier drafted a note claiming that Mr Brewer, a well-respected local figure and former Ashfield council leader who sadly died from Covid, had been involved in “a number of projects including planting around war memorials, cleaning and maintenance work”.

Mr Varley said this was “clearly a first stab at blaming Tony Brewer and distancing himself from AHS.”

Police officers could find no one who was involved in Ashfield’s local heritage, including Mr Brewer’s partner of 35 years, who would say that Mr Brewer had ever been involved with the AHS, or local war memorials.

“So it seems that firstly no one had ever heard of AHS, and secondly Tony Brewer had nothing to do with it,” said Mr Varley.

Mr Varley said the withdrawals from AHS “may well” have formed part of a house purchase, together with Thomas Hollis, a former deputy leader of Ashfield District Council.

It was eventually made by Helen Smith, a mutual friend, using Hollis’ money.

Helen Smith was a district councillor for Ashfield Independents, a tenant of Zadrozny’s, and a Nottingham County Councillor who had contributed to AHS.

Zadrozny transferred £12,000 from his own bank account to Thomas Hollis, who was looking to buy a house on Forest Road, on January 12, 2018.

The property was purchased by Helen Smith in April 2018 for £75,000.

Although it was paid for by her, the funds had come from Mr Hollis and the defendant: Hollis wrote Smith a cheque for £70,626, (£12,000 of which had come from the defendant) and a further £5,000 that Smith had deposited, in cash, into her account on April 3.

The AHS received £7,500 on March 15 and six days later Zadrozny withdrew £2,500 in cash, said Mr Varley. No one knows where that went.

The following week, he withdrew a further £5,000 in two withdrawals from Lloyds in Mansfield. Helen Smith deposited £5,000 in cash at a nearby HSBC 14 minutes after the second withdrawal.

The house was sold for £168,000 in September 2021. Smith then wrote a cheque to Hollis for £97,000 and a further cheque to the conveyancing solicitors, for a little over £68,000 which was “gifted” to the defendant, and used by him to buy a house on Mayfield Street.

“We will look at the defendant’s finances later on in the trial,” said Mr Varley. “But his banking history has been analysed, and despite earning approximately £50,000 a year from his various councillor roles, it appears that he was living beyond his means and was often in debt, and spending a lot of money to finance that debt.”

The court heard that in November 2018, £1,600 was paid into the AHS account and withdrawn six days later – two days after the centenary of Armistice Day 1918.

Zadrozny made two deposits into his savings account amounting to £1,580, within four minutes of the withdrawal.

He also set up the “Classic Cinema Club” (CCC), with the intention of watching old movies, including the “Carry On” films, in 2018, with £1,200 funding from his councillor’s divisional fund, in November 2018.

Between June 4 and 6, 2019, when his personal account was overdrawn, Zadrozny withdrew £1,150 from the CCC account and deposited it into his personal account.

Two weeks later he withdrew the final £50 from the CCC account, in the early hours of the morning, leaving it completely empty.

When he was questioned by police in September 2021 he volunteered a file relating to the CCC, which contained documents and £1,200 in a mixture of £10 and £20 notes.

Mr Varley said these £20 notes could not have been those withdrawn in 2019 as the £20 note had changed since then, and these were the new-style plastic notes.

It is also alleged that Zadrozny also deliberately failed to pay tax on rental income from properties he owned and only paid once the police had told him they were aware of his failure to pay.

In short he was hoping to “get away with it,” did it deliberately, and once he knew the game was up tried to ‘minimise the consequences’, said Mr Varley.

Zadrozny told police he replaced the old notes because they were due to go out of circulation, and denied ever using any of the money for his own purposes, claiming it had sat there “untouched”.

Zadrozny, aged 46, of Brand Lane, Stanton Hill, denied 12 counts of fraud by false representation and four counts of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of income tax when he appeared at Nottingham Magistrates Court in July 2023.

The trial continues.