Sacked Logan councillors have fraud charges dropped

Seven Logan councillors who were suspended after the Crime and Corruption Commission Queensland levelled fraud allegations against them, leading to the entire council’s dismissal, have had their charges dropped in court.

While also relieved of the fraud charge, former mayor Luke Smith has been ordered to face trial on separate counts of misconduct in public office for his alleged role in pushing out the council’s chief executive Sharon Kelsey.

Former Logan councillors Phil Pidgeon, Trevina Schwarz and Russell Lutton, with Ms Schwarz’s lawyer Terry O’Gorman outside Brisbane Magistrates Court after their fraud charges were dropped.Credit: Matt Dennien

Then-local government minister Stirling Hinchliffe appointed an administrator at the council, south of Brisbane, in May 2019 and swept aside the entire elected body days after the group, along with the already-suspended Mr Smith, were automatically and briefly stood down with pay.

The departure of councillors Russell Lutton, Cherie Dalley, Phil Pidgeon, Steve Swenson, Laurie Smith, Trevina Schwarz and Jennie Breene had left the council with just four members, not enough to form a quorum, triggering its dismissal under the same 2018 laws that forced their suspension while they faced criminal charges.

After the Crown prosecutor told the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday the fraud charges against the eight would be dropped owing to insufficient evidence, magistrate Steve Courtney described it as a “proper decision” based on what he had seen during committal hearings. The public gallery, with many of the councillors present, erupted into applause before most filtered out.

Prosecutors told the court they would rely on evidence already submitted for the charges remaining against Mr Smith, for interfering with a recruitment process to dishonestly gain a benefit for another person and commencing a dishonest probation period intended to cause detriment to Ms Kelsey.

Mr Smith offered no comment on the charges while in court. His trial will be set down in the District Court at a date to be determined.

Outside the court, many of the councillors spoke of the heavy toll the past two years had played on their personal and professional lives. Some described being turned down for jobs because of the charges hanging over them, and others the breakdown of relationships.

“I have lived through two years of torture and hell,” Ms Schwarz said, labelling the ordeal faced by the group the “death of presumption of innocence”.

“I was fingerprinted, had my photograph taken and charged with fraud because I voted not to extend the probation of the then Logan CEO Sharon Kelsey because I believed that she was not up to her $500,000-a-year job.”

The charge related to allegations the councillors had worked to sack Ms Kelsey after she had blown the whistle over concerns about the council in October 2017, months after her June appointment, defrauding her of her contracted salary set to expire in June this year.

Ms Kelsey has separately sued the councillors for unfair dismissal, seeking to regain her role. The group denied the allegations, but lost an appeal to delay the civil case they worried could hinder their right to a fair trial. A suppressed decision by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission was now expected to be made public.

Mr Lutton, who was first elected in 1985 and was the council’s longest-serving member, said he “did the people of Logan a favour” by voting to remove Ms Kelsey. “And for that we’ve been persecuted — our careers have been destroyed.”

Mr Pidgeon, who had been a councillor for 22 years, said there needed to be some form of “making it right”, pointing to the laws that automatically swept them from office.