The Gazette’s lead article says there will be further
investigations by the police, see http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/net-widens-Thanet-wake-Ezekiel-trial/story-18287724-detail/story.html#axzz2MIC7nb7n
I take this to mean that we can expect the exposure of more fraud within the
council.
Personally I don’t think the sentence is appropriate, I
don’t want to have to contribute towards the fifty grand cost of locking him up
when he doesn’t present a physical threat to members of society.
I would much rather see him pay a substantial fine, and this
money invested in local projects, say here in Ramsgate something to redress
economic decline caused by all main council owned properties becoming derelict.
Obviously I would add to this I wouldn’t want him to hold public office of any
sort ever again, but would think this is a forgone conclusion.
In the past enquires to councillors about why this and that had
happened that seemed detrimental to Thanet, produced answers varying from council incompetence to spite from a
Conservative administration to a town with predominantly Labour councillors.
Now we have to consider the possibility that there may have also been some
aspect of fraud, where members gained financially from this state of affairs.
This post is a bit of a work in progress, partly because
unlike others I was surprised by both the verdict and the sentence and partly
because my bookshop is very busy today. The illustrations come from a book
published in 1828 by W H Ireland. Ireland is most famous for producing fake
Shakespeares of his own authorship. More book details at http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/catalogue/kent_s_topographer__a_new___complete_history_of_the_isle_of_thanet_from_the_earl.htm
One aspect of this is how to deal with existing problems and
council liabilities relating to the period where our council was run by someone
who we now know was a criminal.
I will use Pleasurama as an example here, only because it is
the local issue that I am most familiar with, over the years of dealing with
this issue there have been times where decisions seemed to defy common sense.
The most notable one under Cllr Ezekiel’s leadership was the
2009 cabinet decision to continue with SFP as a developer, this was made
against officer advice and took the council from a position of having little or
no liability in terms of litigation from SFP to the situation where officers
now say that there is a very real risk of SFP suing the council for millions if
they try to pull out.
The pictures below relate to a comment

















