Welney Clerk Fraud

At that time, I was serving as Chair of the Welney Parish Council as well as the Overseer. This meant I liaised closely with Mr. Cox and Mr. Gardener, both of whom devoted a great deal of their own time voluntarily.

Over the years, I came to greatly appreciate Peter Cox’s diligence and competence in his role as RFO, as well as Peter Gardener’s tenacity in retrieving copy cheques and related documents — both were invaluable members of the team. This period was a positive one, and D/C Forman, the police officer in charge of the fraud investigation, was very complimentary of their abilities. Their combined efforts ultimately brought the perpetrator to the table, resulting in a plea bargain requiring repayment of all stolen funds in exchange for a formal caution.

This agreement was fully ratified and approved by the full Welney Parish Council on 15 March 2021.

As I was unfortunately bedbound in hospital at that time, and expected to remain so for the foreseeable future, I resigned from my position as Chair on 4 May 2021. Dorothy Harvey was subsequently elected as Chair.

In August 2021, I experienced a very challenging period in my life when I was admitted to hospital several times due to serious health complications. During that time, I was diagnosed with four life-threatening illnesses, underwent two major heart operations, and suffered a near-sepsis episode that caused my haemoglobin levels to fall to a critically low level of 65. The situation was extremely difficult both physically and mentally, as I was also prescribed four different opiate medications to manage the pain and aid my recovery.

Given the severity of my health condition and the ongoing treatment I required, it became clear that I would be unable to continue fulfilling my responsibilities to the Welney Parish Council to the standard that both the community and I would expect. Despite my strong commitment to serving the parish, I felt it was only right and responsible to step down from my role to focus on my recovery and allow someone else the opportunity to take on the position without disruption. Therefore, in September 2021, I made the difficult but necessary decision to formally resign from the Welney Parish Council.

This decision was not made lightly, as I had valued my time and contributions to the council deeply. However, prioritising my health was essential in order to make a full recovery and regain stability after such a serious and life-threatening period.

Although the current Welney Parish Council has categorised and issued me with two alleged “freedom of speech” violations in connection with my ongoing efforts to recover funds that were stolen from the Council, I remain committed to pursuing this matter. These funds were once formally acknowledged and agreed upon during the Welney Parish Council Extraordinary Meeting, held on 15th March 2021.

Following a long and difficult period of ill health, during which I was treated at both the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Papworth Hospital, I am now fortunate to enjoy a reasonable level of health and quality of life once again. With this renewed strength, I feel it is my duty to ensure that our village is not financially undermined or, as some might say, “sold down the road.”

In recent months, many residents have spoken to me and my colleagues about the possibility of reviving community sports such as football and cricket on the village field, along with other recreational activities. If the missing funds were to be returned to the Parish Council or its associated charity, this would provide a valuable foundation for restoring and supporting grassroots sports in Welney — something our village has a proud history of. In the past, Welney was widely regarded as one of the leading Fenland villages for promoting sport at all levels.

Now that my health has improved, I am in a stronger position to continue investigating this issue — an issue I was forced to set aside earlier due to my serious medical conditions. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to see this matter through, not only for the sake of transparency and accountability but also for the long-term benefit of our community.

I want to make it absolutely clear that this agreement was initially presented to me as Chair and was brokered through the determination and persistence of Cox and Gardener, working in conjunction with D/C Forman.

I believe the recent actions and apparent reversal of this agreement have completely undermined trust and done a great disservice to the people of Fenland Parish. Speaking for myself and my colleagues, we will not rest until we have uncovered the cause of this travesty of justice and taken steps to correct it.

To view more information please view the above timeline which shows circa £22K was about to be handed back to the community.

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Please note that the ex Chairman, who was chairman for the complete period of the Fraudulent activities of the former Parish Clerk, says at the end of the conversation, “You were a Councillor, you had a chance to sort it, you didn’t and we’re here now and we’re quite happy with it…” Then Mr Goodger cut me off in the public participation meeting stating, “… you should have done it in office, not anybody else”. Borough Councillor Rose put a question to Mr Goodger, stopping me in my tracks, so I could not put it to the meeting that myself, as Chair, and the Police Liaison officer, in March 2021, put the deal that Cox and Gardner had brokered with the DC in charge to the full WPC, and they agreed to allow a caution and collect the money. I feel it rather extraordinary that several councillors/Borough Councillors who were at that meeting where the agreement was made, were also at the meeting of 7th December 2021 when it was decided to drop the case, not collect the money, and just serve a caution. (See images below)

What I am saying loud and clear is that Mr Goodger re-joined the Welney Parish Council just prior to the meeting of 7th December 2021, where it was agreed to terminate the case. He badly broke the rules by not declaring an interest in the matter. I am saying, as he was the boss of the former Clerk when she perpetrated the theft, no way should he have been involved in any discussions on the way forward in connection with the theft.

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Cox and Gardener situation These two people were methodical and produced very sound thefts figures. I personally had worked on projects over many years where Cox was a spot-on financial controller. To me, it was a big feather in their caps for them to broker a deal with D/C Forman that bought the perpetrator to the table, with her voluntarily offering to pay the balance of stolen monies back – circa just south of £22k, as £8k of the total’s £30k was paid back to cover the former clerk’s track in 2017.

When the D/C put this plea bargain to me as WPC Chair, I was very pleased and, once the the D/C superiors had given approval, from my hospital bed I gave Millard, the WPC Clerk at that time, the D/C’s contact details and communications. Millard put it before extra the extraordinary WPC meeting of 15th March 2021, to get unanimous approval. It was becoming obvious to me that I was in no fit state to continue as Chair. See my closing report of 4 May 2021, which I am sure will portray that I was expecting the Clerk’s theft monies to soon be in the WPC Bank. For the rest of 2021, I was mainly hospitalised. By September 2021, it was very obvious, due to my personal health, that I must resign. It was sod’s law that my colleagues Dr Pratley and John Loveday had life changing events hit them, plus Cox became a full-time carer. Also, our An ex-Chair, Tim Bennett died. This situation diluted the fight for justice. It appears that the D/C broke her leg and her final visit to interview allotment holders, to verify some payments amounting to £600 cash, never happened, thus stalling the repayment. Cox’s figures were perfect, but it seems that the police ran into a difficult illness – overworked, plus no training in fraud. The case starts to fall apart – computer evidences not up-to date, with figures chaotic, plus the situation was further complicated by a fraction of the WPC. As the fraud happened under their noses, they just want it to go away. So, there are two parties caught with their trousers down, so to speak, when whistle blowers start asking questions – WPC and someone in the hierarchy of the police. Their only card is the DARVO technique. In this instance, the whistle blower is Giles, ex chair/stroke WPC fraud liaison officer. He asked questions of the DC who was in charge of the Clerk’s theft investigation, and he asked questions of the original WPC Chair during the period Clerk stole the money.

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Welney Parish Council Meeting – 18th November 2025

I mentioned recently that I had visited the former Clerk who was investigated for theft from the WPC monies. I suggested to the former Clerk that she should pay the £22K that she had stolen back to the Welney Parish Council. The former Clerk stated that all monies were paid back 7 years ago. I stated that she had plea bargained to pay all outstanding £22K monies back in return for a caution, and it had been approved at the WPC meeting of 15^th March 2021 to accept her offer. (Clerk stated she had never agreed to anything, plus nobody believed those figures. It seems strange to me that if this former Clerk had not stolen the monies that I had mentioned, why did she not go to the police and report me for harassment.)

Just a script of what I tried to say during the Public Participation section of the WPC meeting, as my recording was somewhat hijacked due to the Chair heckling. I explained that at the last WPC meeting I was told by the WPC Chair, Ken Goodger, to go elsewhere for info on how or why the Clerk’s fraud case was closed down. (When I was fraud supervisor plus WPC Chair of the Extraordinary meeting, the perpetrator had admitted theft and a deal was done, with plea bargains to pay the £22K back in return for a caution with no court action. This is in the minutes of WPC meeting 15th March 2021. I explained that a police researcher had told me there was no record of any letters being sent to the WPC closing the case down. Then DC Chapman rang me, then texted me, saying she would get me an answer. Although this sergeant gave me her contact details, it was a long period of time before I made contact (I was a bit off course in the recording saying ‘next week’). At one stage, the Child Abuse Investigation office told me that DS Chapman was away on unplanned leave. Eventually, I managed to contact DS Chapman whose story was that WPC Gardner was their contact and that they closed the case down. Plus, the DS said go to WPC for detail. WPC Denise Lowry stated that Councillor Gardner was not a Councillor when the case was closed. (He was a Councillor at end of 2021, when case was closed.)

More detailed information can be found on Peter Cox’s Website

https://www.welney.org.uk/parish-council/parish-clerk’s-fraud.htm