30 April 2004
Disgraced former Westminster council leader Dame Shirley Porter has agreed to pay the authority £12.3m, finally bringing to an end the 'homes for votes' scandal that has dragged on for almost 20 years.
Porter has done a deal with the council and the Audit Commission to make the payment in return for the council abandoning its attempts to make her pay a £27m surcharge imposed by the House of Lords.
The Tesco heiress, who fled into exile in Israel, was confirmed guilty of gerrymandering by the Lords in 2001.
In the mid-1980s she sold off hundreds of the authority's council houses in marginal wards to potential Tory voters instead of offering them to those on the waiting list. Homeless people in the borough were instead forced to live in two asbestos-ridden tower blocks that were subsequently demolished.
Westminster succeeded last year in freezing assets worth up to £35m believed to belong to Porter, but in other people's names.
The council said the deal, which should be finalised within the next two months, was an 'excellent result'.
Deputy leader Kit Malthouse said: 'While we would have preferred that the debt be paid in full, we have had to be pragmatic and weigh in the balance the costs and risks of litigation overseas.'
PFapr2004
