A POLITICIAN has condemned a court order forcing him to pay almost £2,000 in unpaid tax as an "abuse of process" by the council he sits on.
Maldon district councillor Stephen Savage was ordered by magistrates at a hearing on Wednesday last week to pay the authority £1,942.92 to settle his council tax arrears, which have built up since 2010.
But the unemployed representative for Maldon East launched a tirade against council officers during the hearing in which he accused them of breaking a prior agreement in taking him to court over the matter.
"Maldon District Council has brought a malicious case aided and abetted by the local authority. I believe this was about more than council tax, it was personal," Mr Savage told the Chronicle after the hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.
The 62-year-old told magistrates that he had reached a prior arrangement with both senior officers, and the chief executive, at Maldon District Council that he would pay £57 each month in council tax, about 50 per cent of what was due.
He maintained the temporary agreement was in place until a wider decision on his entitlement to benefits could be reached.
"Then for reasons I do not know the council have abandoned that undertaking and proceeded to court," added Mr Savage, after the decision last week.
"Before I first even appeared at the magistrates I allowed a fellow councillor to intercede on my behalf and try to broker a deal to avoid it reaching this stage. I had offered to pay the whole lot in one lump sum but officers refused the money."
However, after listening to Mr Savage's allegations against the council, District Judge John Woollard issued the liability order forcing him to pay the unpaid tax which dates from April 2010 to April 2013, and warned that if the former town mayor failed to do so he may face enforcement proceedings.
The case follows a series of disputes over claims made by Mr Savage, who was prosecuted by the Department of Work and Pensions for falsely claiming Jobseeker's Allowance between 2007 and 2009, although he was later found not guilty in January 2011.
Then the Government tried to get him to pay back £5,000 in benefits they said he was not entitled to because he was claiming expenses as an elected councillor.
He still maintains his benefit entitlements are yet to be decided.
"So how on earth can the council work out council tax?" he asked during the hearing.
Mr Savage, who received 254 votes in the 2011 elections, also believes any victory by the council is undermined by the expense of taking the case to court.
"They have just wasted taxpayer's money with no benefit," he said.
District councillor Adrian Fluker had tried to intervene prior to the court case on Mr Savage's behalf.
"Mindful of the legal costs involved and given the complexity of this case I made an offer of settlement to the local authority on behalf of Mr Savage. The offer was refused," he said.
A statement from Maldon District Council said: "The council takes rigorous action to recover all council tax debts."
It added: "
"We would not refuse to accept payment, and if full payment of the summonsed amount was made prior to the court hearing no further action would be taken, and the application for a liability order would not be pursued."
