Ex-council leader wins substantial payout after paper publishes false allegations

A former leader of West Lindsey District Council has secured a front-page apology and a “very substantial” sum by way of compensation from the publisher of the Lincolnshire Echo, after the newspaper published a series of defamatory articles about him.

The stories related to a planning application Bernard Theobald, a former chairman of West Lindsey’s planning committee, had made in June 2009.

In a statement in open court Mr Theobald’s counsel, Ronald Thwaites QC, set out the background to the claim.

• On 1 December 2009, the Lincolnshire Echo published an article headlined Revealed: The Truth Behind Planning Outcry on pages 1 and 2. The article alleged there were good and solid reasonable grounds to suspect that Mr Theobald had committed fraud in order to advance his planning application
• On 4 December 2009 the Lincolnshire Echo published an article entitled You cannot be serious!. This article repeated the allegation that there were good and solid reasonable grounds to suspect that Mr Theobald had committed fraud in order to advance his planning application. It also alleged that Mr Theobald had lied in denying the Lincolnshire Echo’s claim that his planning application had resulted in a council officer’s suspension and investigation by the Audit Commission
• On 1 January 2010 the Lincolnshire Echo published on page 3 an article entitled Councillor’s future to be discussed. This article alleged that Mr Theobald was disgraced by reason of having acted in a seriously improper way in order to advance his planning application
• In addition to the publications in the newspaper, versions of the three articles appeared on its associated website, www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk.

In the statement in open court Thwaites said – and Lincolnshire Media accepted – that there were never any grounds to suspect Mr Theobald of fraud in relation to his planning application or of having acted in an improper manner in order to advance his planning application. It was also agreed that there was no basis whatsoever to state that he was disgraced or to impute that he was lying.

The allegations could not be justified, and were therefore completely false and should never have been published.

Thwaites told the court: “The fact is that neither the internal District Council investigation referred to in the first two articles, nor the Audit Commission investigation, were prompted by, nor investigations into, Mr Theobald’s planning application. Moreover, the suspension of the planning officer referred to was wholly unrelated to the application or any actions relating to Bernard Theobald. Indeed, the application had not even been made at the time of the officer’s suspension.”

The newspaper apologised fully and unreservedly to Mr Theobald for the serious distress and embarrassment caused. It will pay his legal costs as well as compensation.

Mr Theobald said: “I am delighted to be able to finally set the record straight and to clear my name. The newspaper has accepted that the allegations it published about me were false and should never have been published. I have achieved all the objectives I had when I first brought this claim and look forward to putting the whole episode behind me and getting on with my life.”