Lib Dem councillor is appointed to crime panel despite serving two years for smuggling £500,000 of cocaine from Bolivia – after Tory was disqualified as crime commissioner due to drink-drive conviction

• Councillor Ross Henning was jailed in 1987 for role in drug smuggling operation
• Lib Dem has now been appointed to co-chair Wiltshire’s police and crime panel
• It comes months after Police and Crime Commissioner candidate was forced to withdraw from the race after a historic drink driving conviction came to light
• Rules bar those with convictions from standing as PCC but not on crime panel
• Cllr Henning says that as rehabilitated convict he brings unique point of view

A councillor who was jailed for his part in a drug-smuggling ring has been appointed the co-chair of a county’s police and crime panel.

Ross Henning, who was imprisoned for two years in 1987 after admitting his role in smuggling cocaine worth £500,000 from Bolivia, has been elected co-chairman of the Wiltshire police and crime panel.

It comes just months after the Conservative’s leading candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) was disqualified from standing after a historic drink driving conviction ‘came to light’.

Under electoral rules, anyone with a conviction for an imprisonable offence is unable to run for the PCC role – but the same rules do not apply to the police and crime panel.

Cllr Henning, 67, believes that as a rehabilitated convict he brings a unique point of view to the panel – which oversees the police and crime commissioner.

He says that since his conviction he has dedicated three decades to helping others including setting up the pilot for the Wiltshire Young Offending Team and chairing the Calne Community Safety Forum for eight years.

Wiltshire councillor Ross Henning has been appointed co-chair of the county’s crime panel despite being convicted of helping to smuggle cocaine worth £500,000 from Bolivia in 1980s

Disqualified: Wiltshire PCC Conservative candidate Jonathan Seed (pictured with Prime Minister Boris Johnson) had to withdraw from the race due to a 1993 drink driving conviction

‘I’ve been on the police committee because of my unique experience with policing and I have tried to use my experience to help and benefit others,’ he said.

‘My convictions are spent, and I’ve spent decades trying to repay society, and to use my experience to help others. So, the two things are not linked at all.’

He added that he was honoured to rise to the position because it shows how far rehabilitation can bring someone.

‘We should give people a chance rather than banging them down all the time,’ he said.

‘This is something I know about, and I know about it from a point of view that not many, in my position, would be able to understand.’

The same county saw further controversy in May when the front-running Wiltshire PCC Conservative candidate Jonathon Seed was disqualified before the count, due to a 1993 drink driving conviction.

Mr Seed received 40 per cent of the vote in the first round and was elected after it went to a second ballot but was unable to take up the post.

The party said Mr Seed, who had been hoping to take over from departing Conservative colleague Angus Macpherson, had been ‘disbarred’ after a driving offence had ‘come to light.’

Ross Henning (pictured, left, in 1980s and, right, today) believes that as a rehabilitated convict he brings a unique point of view to the panel – which oversees police and crime commissioner

Andy Brown, Wiltshire Council corporate director for resources, and deputy chief executive, said: ‘Criminal convictions don’t prevent someone from being a councillor unless they have been convicted and received a prison sentence, or suspended sentence, of three months or more in the five years before the election.

‘It is up to the political parties to nominate their representatives on committees, and for the police and crime panel the chair and vice chair were then voted by councillors on that panel.’

Questions were raised about the double standard that this might present, but PCC Lib Dem candidate Cllr Brian Mathew said Cllr Henning has been open and honest about his past.

Henning was jailed for his role in cocaine smuggling operation 

Ross Henning was arrested in 1986 after UK customs officers found 5.5lb of cocaine hidden inside a statue, in a suitcase, belonging to his college friend Paul Copeland.

During an investigation, officers discovered Copeland had had parcels of cocaine delivered from South America to Henning’s grandparents’ house in Chippenham. 

According to reports at the time, Cllr Hennings told arresting Customs officers: ‘I allowed him to use the house with two Bolivian friends.

‘They manufactured cocaine which was sold to friends in London.’

He also admitted taking cocaine and being sent the drug in film canisters from Bolivia during 1982 and 1983.

At the time of his arrest, Cllr Henning was a Wiltshire county councillor, leader of the SDP in the town and a governor at Hardenhuish School.

He was sentenced to two years at Islewood Crown Court in 1987. 

‘I think there’s a big difference between that and keeping something secret,’ he added.

‘Ross has done huge amounts of work with restorative justice and turned what could have been a dreadful thing into a real positive.

‘That is the benefit of someone who has been honest and open about his past and the benefit of the people who have worked with him on the Calne Community Safety Forum.

‘To show not just remorse but to use that experience for the betterment and that is something that Ross has certainly done.’

Mike Rees who ran as an independent in the previous PCC election said people should not be continually punished for past mistakes.

‘People should be given the opportunity to turn their lives around,’ he said.

‘I’ve got no issue with the fact he’s made mistakes in the past and has appeared to turn his life around.’

In 2004, councillors had refused to work with Cllr Henning while he was mayor of Chippenham after learning of his conviction.

Despite calls at the time for his resignation, Cllr Henning refused as he said his past was never hidden, adding: ‘I committed and served time for this crime almost 20 years ago.

‘Even though I have been rehabilitated, I feel the label of a criminal will always be there.’

Labour PCC candidate and Police & Crime panel chairman, Junab Ali said: ‘He’s done his time. He’s put his hand up but look at what he’s achieved since.. he’s been a town councillor, a Wiltshire councillor, Chippenham Town Mayor.

‘He’s reformed his life; he’s done incredible work with children and young people to stop them getting into trouble.

‘We put people in prison, but if we don’t allow them to reform themselves, it’ll just be a vicious circle.

‘He has reformed himself and it will be a very useful perspective to have someone who has been on the other side of it, who has seen the other side of the criminal justice system, who has seen what it is to be in prison.

‘He made a very serious mistake, and he’s had to live with that ever since, but he’s put it behind him and that’s why I will support him as vice chairman of the Police and Crime Panel.’

Source: Read Full Article