'Unlawful' £1m Northumberland council payments will not be referred to police

The council's chief finance officer said there was no evidence of fraud or other form of criminal activity

"Unlawful" pay-outs to former council managers totalling more than £1m will not be referred to police.

Northumberland County Council made exit payments to six managers between May 2017 and 2022 which did not have proper authorisation, the authority's internal audit team said earlier this week.

It has now revealed a seventh payment was made, taking the total to £1.13m.

However, the council said it had uncovered "no evidence of fraud or any other form of potential criminality".

The payments were deemed unlawful on the basis they were not signed off by councillors through the correct legal process.

Chief financial officer Jan Willis told a council meeting on Wednesday the authority would not seek to claim any of the funds back.

She said: "Nothing has come to light in the course of establishing this matter that makes me believe that there is any suggestion of fraud having been carried out."

'Not illegal'

The audit committee meeting heard there was a key difference between the payments being unlawful and being illegal - meaning that they would have been legal "had they followed the necessary governance procedures".

Exit payments to chief council officers must be approved by the authority's staff and appointments committee, or by full council if the severance package exceeds £100,000, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

But a provision detailing those rules in the county council's pay policy was removed "for reasons that are unclear" between 2019 and 2022, a report to councillors revealed.

Conservative councillor and former cabinet member Nick Oliver claimed he had been refused information "over and over again" about pay-offs during his time in the authority's leadership team and that some payments were an "absolute mystery".

Suggesting the issue be referred to police, he said: "Surely one of the messages we should be sending out is that we take it seriously and if you abuse money in this way then you will be held to account?"

However, Ms Willis replied there was no basis to forward the matter to officers.

"It is a matter of unlawfulness, not of illegality. These are payments that would have been lawful if the proper procedures had been followed."