Six-year-old claims about raffle money and Redland councillor Lance Hewlett back before CCC
Queensland’s top corruption watchdog has taken over a six-year-old case involving a local city councillor once accused in parliament of failing to return an iPad, mishandling cash donations and destroying financial records.
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Queensland’s top corruption watchdog has taken over a six-year-old case involving a local city councillor accused in parliament of failing to return an iPad, mishandling cash donations and destroying financial records.
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It was revealed this week, a complaint about Redland City councillor Lance Hewlett, which dates back to 2014, has been returned to the CCC for investigation.
Cr Hewlett denied any wrongdoing and said he was unaware of the CCC investigation but had been subjected to a relentless campaign of “unfounded attacks” driven by Bowman MP Andrew Laming.
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“Andrew Laming’s comments and accusations made in parliament, under Parliamentary privilege are just part of his relentless, unfounded personal attacks against my wife and myself, over many years, in an effort to discredit us,” Cr Hewlett said.
“His many personal attacks on Facebook are an ongoing source of anguish for us, our family and our friends.”
The matter had been before the Office of independent Assessor but was sent to the corruption watchdog after a speech by Mr Laming in federal parliament in February.
In that speech, Mr Laming made allegations about Cr Hewlett and his wife, Sheena, when they were chair and treasurer of the Redlands LNP branch in 2013-14.
The pair resigned from those posts in 2014 after a failed preselection attempt launched after Mrs Hewlett’s brother, the LNP MP for Redlands Peter Dowling, was disgraced when photos were published showing him putting his penis in a glass of red wine.
Mr Laming’s speech to parliament claimed the Hewletts failed to hand over office-bearer materials and party property in a timely manner and that the couple waged a campaign against the LNP, their former party.
“A $1000 iPad was retained until after the election so it couldn’t be used,” Mr Laming told parliament.
“Eventually, it was left on a bin for recovery, and it turned out to be a 16G factory-wiped device with the serial number scratched off the back with a sharp implement and all information deleted.”
The speech also alleged more than $9000 in raffle ticket takings were minuted but never banked and LNP financial records from that period were no longer available after pages from accounting books were “sliced out by what appeared to be a Stanley knife”.
Mr Laming said he would not comment on any matters before the CCC.