Northamptonshire: 'Fighting council conviction a 20-year nightmare'

A former publican wrongly prosecuted on food safety charges said the ordeal was an "absolute nightmare".

Geoffrey Monks lost the Snooty Fox in Lowick, Northamptonshire and served time in jail next to Soham murderer Ian Huntley, after his prosecution in 1999.

North Northamptonshire Council has agreed to pay him damages of £4m which includes payment of all legal costs, the authority said.

Dr Monks said: "It's been an awful 20-odd years."

He brought High Court action in 2019 in which he alleged East Northamptonshire District Council pursued a vendetta against him through the courts, amounting to abuse of process.

The authority was superseded by North Northamptonshire Council last year, meaning the new authority became liable for any damages.

Dr Monks, 67, was prosecuted in 1999 over alleged food safety offences at the Snooty Fox, He was unable to pay fines and costs amounting to £20,000 and was sent to a category A prison in 2003.

The conviction was overturned in 2015 following a referral from the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Mr Monks told BBC Radio Northampton: "It has been an absolute nightmare, I don't think the finest novelist in Britain could have come up with the story.

"I suffered serious heart problems at the time; when I was jailed my poor mother suffered a major stroke and didn't swallow or speak for another eight years until she died."

He said he had "no idea" why he was placed in a category A prison in an adjacent cell to the Soham murderer Ian Huntley, who was awaiting trial at the time.

"When I was in prison, apparently I don't sound or look like the average lifer, and it went round quickly I was an MI5 plant looking for where the cash or bombs were, and I had five death threats in my first morning," he said.

As well as the Snooty Fox case he had another conviction relating to the Samuel Pepys pub, at neighbouring Slipton, overturned on appeal.

Dr Monks said: "It certainly has been a major undertaking to seek to rectify this.

"Really my motivation [was that] I wanted to do something to make it difficult, or probably impossible, for any other ordinary [person] to suffer [something similar]."

Dr Monks said it had "never been about money" and it had cost him more than £1m to bring the case to court.

Leader of North Northamptonshire Council, Jason Smithers, said the prosecution "should never have occurred" and apologised for the defunct district council's actions.

Dr Monks said he was "grateful to the new North Northamptonshire Council, they've done the right thing and brought the matter to conclusion".

He added he was "impressed" with Mr Smithers and believed the new authority meant "it is very different state of affairs these days".

Dr Monks said he still had to manage heart problems and would now concentrate on his academic writing.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]