Northumberland council £1m pay-outs referred to police

Northumberland County Council's chief financial officer said there was a difference between unlawful and illegal

"Unlawful" pay-outs to former council managers totalling more than £1m will now be referred to police.

Northumberland County Council made exit payments to seven managers which did not have proper authorisation.

In July, chief financial officer Jan Willis said there was no basis to refer the pay-outs to police.

But at an audit committee meeting on Wednesday, monitoring officer Stephen Gerrard said the matter would be handed over for investigation after all.

In a statement, Mr Gerrard said there had been further inquiries since the July meeting "and further advice has been sought".

"In consultation with the leader and other statutory officers, I have decided to refer the matter to Northumbria Police for further consideration," he said.

Mr Gerrard did not take questions from members of the committee, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

'Public money'

At the audit committee meeting in July, Ms Willis said her investigation had uncovered "no evidence of fraud or any other form of potential criminality" that would require the matter to be handed over to police.

She had, however, previously described the payments, totalling £1.13m, as "unlawful".

Ms Willis told the committee there was a difference between that and the payments being illegal, as they would have been legal "had they followed the necessary governance procedures".

Speaking to the LDRS before the meeting, Conservative council leader Glen Sanderson said: "I felt it was necessary to take extra King's Counsel advice that we have taken because of the seriousness of some of the allegations, and because some involved public money.

"It is for the residents' sake that it is right that we investigate properly."