Taxpayers face losing up to £200 million after a council 'gambled' more than half a billion pounds on a green energy scheme run by a fast-living financier, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Good lord, what incompetent council is th...
Cash-strapped Thurrock Council in Essex...
/facepalm
You'd think, wouldn't you, that in Essex of all places they'd be able to spot a wide-boy chancer coming a mile off?
...borrowed £655million of public money – the equivalent of triple what it spends on services each year – to invest in 53 solar farms across the UK.
It agreed a series of deals with globe-trotting businessman Liam Kavanagh, whose integrity was later questioned by a High Court judge over £5million his company banked in 'commission'.Thurrock hoped the huge investment would generate millions in extra income but independent consultants hired by the council have privately warned that the solar farms are worth far less than required to recoup their cash.
They also raised concerns about the use of a £138million top-up investment made by Thurrock – approved after a series of meetings at London's five-star May Fair hotel between Mr Kavanagh and the council's finance chief – which does not appear to have gone into the farms. And the latest £12.5million interest payment owed to the council is months overdue, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found.
Want to bet who will be sacked and face jail time for this, Reader?
