The Abbots Langley community and local political leaders have called for a newly elected councillor to resign and for party election processes to be questioned.
Liberal Democrat councillor Mo Rattab was elected to the Bedmond Ward on Abbots Langley Parish Council on September 8, after securing 199 votes out of a total of 330.
However, it has now come to light that cllr Rattab is a convicted burglar.
He was jailed for three years and 146 days in 2009 after he admitted to breaking into a home in St Albans.
This wasn’t his first conviction, as he had previously been jailed twice for burglary, with St Albans Crown Court hearing that the councillor had committed numerous break-ins to pay for his drug addiction.
Labour councillor Stephen Cox said that the Lib Dems should have been honest about cllr Rattab’s previous convictions.
He said: “There has been a lack of honesty, transparency and openness. The party should have known about the convictions, even if they were spent, along with other issues, and they were under an obligation to ask regarding anything that could have affected his candidature.
“Instead the Liberal Democrats’ election leaflets mentioned none of this and people were asked to ‘trust’ him with their vote and were told he was the ‘best choice’.
“The Liberal Democrats have serious questions to answer as to their selection procedure. Were their rules followed and processes observed? It seems to me that they almost certainly weren’t and whoever is responsible needs to answer for that.”
Leader of the Three Rivers Conservative Group Ciaran Reed said he was “concerned” that the Lib Dems had not declared this information during the election period.
He said: “I would like to know when the Liberal Democrats knew about this and whether cllr Rattab was required to declare this in his application to be their candidate.
“I believe that the public have a right to choose their representatives based on their policies and character and a failure to declare this denied the ability of Bedmond residents to make their choice with all the relevant information.”
The Liberal Democrats and cllr Mo Rattab have been contacted for comment.
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