Resign Councillor Cashmore!

More shenanigans from Lucy Cashmore, Sandwell Labour Councillor and daughter of Councillors Roger and Linda Horton. In my post of 3rd July, "An Unfortunate Error by Councillor Cashmore?", I pointed out the apparent difficulty La Cashmore had in remembering her address when she stood for election in May 2011. And now there is more.....

Cashmore signed her declaration for the Register of Members' Interests on 17th July, 2012. The declaration reads, inter alia:

"I understand that:-

(a) I may be committing a criminal offence if I:-

(i) fail to register or declare disclosable pecuniary interests as required, without reasonable excuse;

(ii) knowingly or recklessly provide information that is false or misleading.

(b) I will be in breach of SMBC's Code of Conduct for Members if I:-

(i) fail to meet the requirements in relation to disclosable pecuniary interests;

(ii) fail to register or declare other pecuniary interests as required;

(iv) provide information that is materially false or misleading.`

This is the first question on the form under "Part A Disclosable Pecuniary Interests":

1. Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

To which Cashmore has given the absolutely unequivocal answer: "None".

Following my earlier blog an anonymous source referred me to a photo of Cashmore's garden at her home in South Birmingham dated August 2011 just months after she was allegedly residing as a "non-paying tenant" [sic] at the home of her parents in Smethwick. As an aside, The Hortons are massive pals of The Turdmeister himself, who lives just around the corner.

When I looked on Facebook I was immediately surprised to see Cashmore describing herself as "Regional Manager at First Personnel". Upon checking LinkedIn I found a Lucy Cashmore of "Dudley" (!!??) also purporting to be "Regional Manager at First Personnel" since March, 2014. But of greater significance is the statement that she "has worked in recruitment for over 16 years" and, more importantly still,  she states that from May 2012 to February 2013 she was "Locations Manager - Birmingham Hub" for Prime Time Recruitment. Sharp-eyed readers will note that Cashmore signed her declaration in July 2012 when she was clearly in employment. This is what is called, in old-fashioned language, a lie.

Leaving aside any action the Police and Sandwell Council will take in respect of all this, the honourable thing to do would be to resign immediately but then I don't suppose the word "honour" features in the lexicon of Sandwell Labour.

Addendum: 08/07/14 Since posting this blog this morning the Facebook pages have been erased.
I should just mention that the March 2014 breakdown of Councillors' allowances are not yet (July!) on the Sandwell Council website but the 2013 list shows Morecash receiving £10,619,04 basic allowance plus an extra £2,041.65 for her "special responsibilities".


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