I will stay on, pledges Camden mayor Omar Faruque Ansari held in fraud probe

Published: 28 January 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY

MAYOR of Camden Omar Faruque Ansari last night (Wednesday) defiantly declared he will keep his role as the borough’s first citizen despite being arrested in a benefits fraud investigation.
He attacked Liberal Democrat councillors who suspended him from their group on Monday night, just hours after he was arrested at the Town Hall and taken to Holborn police station to answer questions about payments he has received in relation to a neck injury.
Councillor Ansari, 55, was released on bail until March while investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions continue their inquiries.
No charges have been brought and the mayor is adamant that he will be cleared of any wrong-doing.
While he has been suspended by the Lib Dems, he has retained the position of Mayor of Camden and there is nothing in the council’s constitution that would force him out of the mayor’s parlour.
The decision as to whether he stays in the role while the DWP’s investigation remains unresolved rests with him.
It is understood that some councillors feel it would be better for Cllr Ansari to step aside so he can concentrate on the case and his efforts to clear his name.
But last night, he told the New Journal that he hopes to be back on official mayor’s business – usually involving visits in the mayoral chain to community events – by the end of the week.
“If somebody has made a mistake with an allegation, it is not my mistake, it is theirs,” he said. “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law and I have declared everything. I have been a good mayor and I want to continue to serve Camden.”
The mayor also railed against the Lib Dem group, who he accused of failing to back him. He had seen their “true colours”, he added.
Cllr Ansari said: “What they have done is run with the ball without there being any reference to me being guilty or not guilty – it is just an allegation. They have jumped to their own conclusions without concerning themselves with asking me for what I say about it. They made their decision hidden behind a closed door.”
Lib Dem members discussed the suspension at a private group meeting on Monday night.
Cllr Ansari’s latest stance is in contrast to comments he made on Tuesday in the immediate aftermath of his suspension, when he said he would give up the mayoralty while the investigation was continuing.
It is understood he had suggested taking only temporary leave from his position but was told by chief officers at the Town Hall that if he resigned he would not be able to resume his position at a later stage.
Cllr Ansari said yesterday: “Everybody would want Faruque in their party. I was the first ethnic councillor for the Lib Dems. I helped them get 300 paying members. There will be members now who will be very, very angry.
“They will say if they don’t stand by Faruque’s side, what will they do to me? I’ve told that to [council leader] Keith Moffitt to his face. It is very much a political shambles.”
Police and DWP investigators are understood to have tried to visit Cllr Ansari at his home but unable to find him there headed to the Town Hall.
Cllr Ansari insisted he had volunteered to answer their questions, although a police spokesman said “a 55-year-old man had been arrested”.
The mayor’s first reaction on Tuesday was that he had not been scared by the experience. He spoke openly about how he had been interviewed on video tape, with a cassette recording running.
The case relates to money received in benefits for dealing with a neck injury and failed surgery in 1995. The case does not relate to council funds.
In biographical details Cllr Ansari submitted to the council, he described how he had been a Bangladeshi freedom fighter at the end of the 1960s, commanding a force of 300 men in conflicts over the country’s independence. He said he was twice wounded in battle.
In Britain, he ran a restaurant while doing charity work in his spare time. The Lib Dems welcomed him as a candidate in Kentish Town after his gung-ho defence of the Prince of Wales Road Baths in 2005.
Lib Dem leader Cllr Moffitt said: “Cllr Ansari has been suspended in the light of allegations being investigated by the Department for Work and Pensions.”
He said some members of the group had offered Cllr Ansari help by encouraging him to seek legal advice.
“We were happy to offer Faruque the opportunity to be mayor and he has performed the role  well,” said Cllr Moffitt.
Conservative leader Councillor Andrew Marshall said: “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I think it would be in his best interests to stand down since I don’t think it is really practical for him to remain a ­mayor when the investigation is going on.”
Labour’s deputy leader Councillor Jon­ath­an Simpson added: “It is unprecedented for the Mayor of Camden to be arrested, and these are clearly very serious allegations.
“It has damaged the reputation of the borough and it would be right for Cllr Ansari to resign to focus on working with the police to clarify matters relating to the alleged benefit fraud. I know many Camden residents will be deeply shocked and saddened by this news and I hope we can quickly work to rebuild the reputation of the mayor in the borough.”
A council spokesman said Cllr Ansari had not filed a letter of resignation and as of last night was still holding the mayor’s post.

CNJ first with news

The New Journal scooped rival media with the first news of the Department of Work and Pensions investigation and the Mayor of Camden’s suspension by Lib Dems on Monday night.
The only newspaper reporting directly from the Town Hall as the Lib Dem group called an emergency meeting, we published the story on our website and were inundated with hits. Other newspapers and media agencies – including the Evening Standard, the BBC and the Press Association – slowly caught up on Tuesday.
Our website is undergoing several upgrades and we are now publishing daily news and sports updates as the big news stories break in Camden.

Curse of Kentish Town

NW5 jinx strikes again

IT used to be a rock-solid Labour neighbourhood but since the Lib Dems began to colonise the see-saw council ward of Kentish Town they have been hit by a run of misfortune. This week the ward was characterised by some observers as being hit by the “Curse of Kentish Town”, with opponents pointing to the crises that have unfolded in NW5.

PHILLIP THOMPSON
Elected to Kentish Town ward in 2006 after leading the petition to save Prince of Wales Baths,
Mr Thompson did not last the four-year term. The party leadership found out about his enrolment at the University of Arizona and plans to move to the US only when alerted by the New Journal.

NICK RUSSELL
In the aftermath of the Thompson debacle, Lib Dems had reason to cheer when candidate Nick Russell ensured the party was re-elected in Kentish Town in 2007. Fond of grand speeches at the Town Hall, Cllr Russell had to apologise last week when he misjudged the mood of a council meeting, saying a rival “always reminds me of a Nazi stormtrooper from Schindler’s List”.

OMAR FARUQUE ANSARI
Another candidate whose election bid in Kentish Town in 2006 was boosted by his role in the Save The Baths campaign, Cllr Ansari was held on Monday by police investigating benefit fraud allegations. On bail and suspended by the Lib Dem group, he has declared himself innocent. As of last night, he remained Mayor of Camden.