A FORMER Waverley Borough Council officer has been convicted of making false air quality readings.
Ann-Marie Wade, 44, of Durrington, Wiltshire, was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on 12 December to 12 months in prison, suspended for 12 months, ordered to pay costs of £1,500 and to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
She was charged with three counts under section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006.
Wade pleaded guilty to twice claiming that false air quality readings were genuine, but denied a third charge alleging that she made false claims for mileage payments related to replacing diffusion tubes.
Following the sentence, Waverley Borough Council issued the following statement:
“The council takes the issue of air quality extremely seriously and recognises that it is an important issue for our residents.
“That is why we acted promptly by commissioning an independent audit investigation after discovering issues with the reporting and monitoring of the council’s air quality data, and subsequently asking the police to investigate.
“We are pleased with the outcome of this case and would like to thank Surrey Police for their hard work on this investigation, and the CPS for ensuring that justice prevailed.
“We will now focus on continuing to guarantee that our routine monitoring of air quality is carried out to the highest standards.
“Following our independent audit investigation, we reviewed our procedures and appointed independent contractors to carry out all of our monitoring.
“Our diffusion tube data is published monthly online and our analyser data is also published online in near real time.”
