A district councillor accused of benefit fraud by the Department for Work and Pensions has won his six-year legal battle.
Stephen Savage, 62, Conservative councillor for Maldon East, won after Judge Wikeley described the department's case as confused and based on legally irrelevant arguments.
The charges date back to a period between May and November 2007, when Mr Savage was alleged to have been overpaid Jobseeker's Allowance.
Mr Savage, who was unemployed at the time of his election, said this week: "These bad decisions seriously affected not only my benefit but also the level of council tax I should pay to Maldon District Council.
"This was a complete waste of time and public money as I have never ducked my liability to pay but to date no one has been able to calculate how much I should be paying.
"The situation is ridiculous but also very stressful – I just want it to be sorted out properly."
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.
He also appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court in 2011 and pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud by failing to disclose information and one count of fraud by false representation.
The department then appealed to the Upper Tribunal following the case's dismissal.
Judge Wikeley threw out the case based on the poor quality of the department's decision making, stating: "The consequential overpayment decisions were in effect built on sand and crumbled with the defective entitlement decisions."
The early judgements were described as a catalogue of flawed decision making and miscalculated deductions of entitlement, which have affected Mr Savage since his election to Maldon District Council in 2007.
"I hope it will be sorted out faster now since the Upper Tribunal's ruling," said Mr Savage. "I have been denied state benefit that I was entitled to and lost thousands of pounds having to take my occupational pension early as I had nothing to live on. I should not have been penalised for being a councillor."
In a separate claim in June, Mr Savage was ordered by magistrates at a hearing to pay the authority £1,942.92 to settle his council tax arrears, which have built up since 2010.
Mr Savage thanked council colleagues and the wonderful support and advice he received from Chelmsford Citizens Advice Bureau.
