Former council leader suspended after code of conduct breach

The former leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council has been suspended for five months for using confidential information to buy shares.

Labour councillor David Poole was found to have breached the councillors’ code of conduct by the Adjudication Panel for Wales (APW). Cllr Poole resigned as leader in September 2019.

Part of Cllr Poole’s duties was to represent Caerphilly on the board of the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal.

In the course of this he became aware that councils in the area wished to support the construction of a semiconductor factory in which a company named IQE would be involved. A confidential report made predictions about IQE’s profitability. The project attracted a £38m grant from the city deal and the Welsh Government to transform a disused building in Newport.

A few days after the city region board considered the matter Cllr Poole bought shares worth £2,034.55 in IQE. The APW said that in January 2019, Cllr Poole tried to amend his register of interests entry to include the IQE shares but “following advice from the monitoring officer, no amendment was made.

“He was advised that, because of the level of his shareholding and the fact that the business was based outside the council’s area, it was not necessary to make any amendment.”

Cllr Poole in January 2019 reinvested his dividends by buying further IQE shares worth £111.57, and another £111.33 that May.

He sold the shares in September 2019 and referred himself to the Public Services Ombudsman, noting “..with the benefit of hindsight, by purchasing shares in IQE, I was preventing myself becoming involved in any decisions of CCR around IQE and the hoped for wider compound semiconductor industry growth in the area”.

The APW found in mitigation that Cllr Poole had not previously breached the code and that he did seek to register an interest in IQE in January 2019, “but failed to do so as a result of the monitoring officer’s advice”.

It also found that Cllr Poole had not tried to influence decisions concerning IQE at a February 2019 meeting and left later meetings at which it was discussed.

There were though a number of aggravating factors. These included his influential position as leader, that he had used confidential, price sensitive information to attempt to secure a personal advantage and had “shown no real insight into his wrongdoing and/or acceptance of guilt” and had in the latter stages of the process failed to engage with the APW.

It suspended him as a councillor for five months and for two months concurrently for failing to disclose interests.