Disgraced council leader resigns after fraud conviction
A disgraced council leader who was convicted of tax evasion and fraud after scamming a local authority out of thousands of pounds has resigned, reports BritPanorama.
Jason Zadrozny, 46, was found guilty at Northampton Crown Court on Monday of nine counts of fraud and four counts of fraudulent evasion of income tax. Jurors cleared him of three further fraud charges.
The former leader of Ashfield District Council had denied establishing a fake heritage organisation in order to defraud Nottinghamshire County Council.
Ashfield District Council stated on Tuesday that it will elect a new leader after Zadrozny stepped down from his role and resigned from the Ashfield Independents party.
A spokesperson for the council said: “We are aware of the reports that Councillor Jason Zadrozny is stepping down as leader of the council and as a member of the Ashfield Independent Group.
“The council is looking at governance options that would elect a new leader as soon as possible. We will confirm details once those arrangements are in place. In the meantime, all council services will continue uninterrupted.”
The council confirmed Zadrozny has not resigned as a councillor.
Prosecutors told a four-week trial that Zadrozny, who was first elected to Ashfield District Council and Nottinghamshire County Council in 2007, helped himself to cash from the Ashfield Heritage Society, which he set up in February 2018.
Jurors were also told Zadrozny was a landlord who did not pay tax on income from four of his properties.
Opening the Crown’s case at the beginning of the trial, prosecutor James Varley KC stated that the Ashfield Heritage Society did not exist. He told the court: “He told the council ‘this is a genuine organisation, they need some funds’ and they gave him some funds, but it was a scam.”
Zadrozny claimed he did not keep the money for himself and provided cash from the heritage society to Tony Brewer, a former Ashfield District Council chairman who died from Covid in 2020, for the repair of war memorials.
However, the Crown maintained that funding allocated to the society was withdrawn in cash by the defendant. Funding from the Classic Cinema Club, created by Zadrozny, while “probably legitimate” at its inception, was similarly misappropriated.
The court heard that £9,100 was withdrawn in cash from the Ashfield Heritage Society account, while £1,200 was withdrawn from the cinema club account. Both organisations were funded by the councillors’ divisional fund of Nottinghamshire County Council, intended for good causes.
Ashfield MP Lee Anderson and fellow Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick, who represents Newark, issued statements following Zadrozny’s conviction, with Mr Jenrick labelling him “the biggest stain on Nottinghamshire politics for a decade.”
Mr Anderson echoed this sentiment, calling for Zadrozny to step down and stating: “He is a disgrace to our area and I feel for the thousands of people who put their trust in him at the ballot box – they were quite clearly duped by a sinister and manipulative con artist.”
Zadrozny was warned by Judge David Herbert KC after his conviction that an immediate prison sentence is possible.
