Council leader Jason Zadrozny found guilty of fraud and tax evasion

During the trial, jurors were told Zadrozny had set up the Ashfield Heritage Society in 2018 before applying for funding from Nottinghamshire County Council, which he then transferred into his personal account.

This included £7,500, requested three days after setting up a bank account for the society, which Zadrozny – who was a county councillor at the time – claimed was “to support heritage projects in Ashfield”.

The council issued the funds and they were sent directly to Zadrozny, who deposited them in the account, before withdrawing them in cash in March.

Prosecutors alleged part of the money was used to buy a house with friends.

They said the fraud came to light in March 2021, when Catherine Mason, who was hoping to stand for election in Ashfield, was looking into the council’s expenditure and investigated the setting up of the heritage society.

The county council launched an investigation and subsequently passed the details on to the police.

Zadrozny denied the offences and told the trial all the funds he had received were spent on the community.

He told jurors he gave the cash from the Ashfield Heritage Society to Tony Brewer – a former Ashfield District Council chairman who died from Covid in 2020 – to carry out the repair and maintenance of war memorials in the area.

The defendant told jurors his paperwork for funding applications was “terrible”, adding: “I wouldn’t be sitting in the dock if I filled it out much more clearly.”

He also said the wrong address on the application form for the heritage society was “clearly an error” and he cannot remember why he wrote it down.

Jurors found him not guilty of three of the 12 counts of fraud.