Hatton 'rewarded handsomely for land deals'

DEREK HATTON, the former deputy leader of Liverpool council, drew handsome rewards for three dishonest land deals he fixed through corrupting caucuses controlling council committees, a jury at Mold Crown Court, Clwyd, was told yesterday.

Mr Hatton was paid by Roy Stewart, a property developer, and John Monk, a car park operator and Mr Hatton's tailor, it was alleged.

Some of the money was paid on to John Nelson and Hannah Folan, former Labour councillors who successively chaired committees responsible for the disposal of council-owned property.

All five deny charges of conspiracy to defraud the council.

'Their whole conduct was thoroughly dishonest,' Alan Rawley QC, for the prosecution, said. 'There were backhanders at the end of the day.'

Instead of land being offered for tender, the Labour caucus was manipulated to 'swing things their way', the sites disposed to Mr Monk and Mr Stewart in a clandestine way at the prices they put forward. 'The moving spirit behind this was Mr Hatton,' Mr Rawley said.

The alleged land deals were made between November 1986 and March 1990. Two inner-city plots became car parks run on a council licence by Mr Monk; a third was to be developed by Mr Stewart. Mr Hatton sat in the middle of the defendants in the dock on the opening day of the biggest political trial to open in the town since the Mold Eight were given penal servitude in 1869.

The eight had been colliers whose workplace grievances drove them to attack the pit manager. The men became working-class heroes, their convictions provoking a protest riot by 2,000 people, four of whom were killed when soldiers opened fire on them. Mr Hatton, the court was told yesterday, had been the head of a public relations company formed in 1987 with clients including Mr Monk and Mr Stewart. It was difficult to know from company invoices what services Mr Hatton gave, Mr Rawley said.

Mr Monk obtained a licence to use a site at Manesty's Lane for an annual rent of pounds 10,000. Mr Nelson 'steamrollered' the decision through the council in Mr Monk's favour, in spite of interest in the site expressed by other car park operators, Woolworth, the stores' group, and Sir Trevor Jones, former Liberal leader of Liverpool council.

Mr Rawley said council officials had correctly advised that the land should be put out to tender. But Mr Nelson was 'promoting Monk's interests to the exclusion of everyone else and to the detriment of the city'.

A similar site for car parking at Brownlow Hill was licensed to Mr Monk with the 'dishonest' support of Ms Folan and without other interested parties, which included National Car Parks and the Adelphi Hotel, being able to tender.

It was not necessary for the Crown to prove that the land could have fetched a better price, only that defendants prejudiced the council's right to have the transaction done properly, Mr Rawley said. Nor was it necessary to show that defendants received money - although the prosecution would claim they did.

In a case expected to last more than four months, Mr Rawley said the jury would have a large volume of documents to consider.

He claimed Mr Hatton's diary included details of payments to individuals identified from their initials. Ms Folan, for example, was in receipt of pounds 1,000 to 'F', Mr Rawley said. Money was used to pay her building society mortgage arrears.

(Photographs omitted)