Fire chief on £120,000 a year is cleared of fraud after making winning £500 bid on one of his own brigade's Land Rovers in auction that he was running
- Stewart Edgar, 53, was cleared of fraud after making £500 winning bid on one of his own brigade's Land Rovers in auction after using third party on his behalf
- Former chief fire officer secured the 2003-plate vehicle for daughter's wedding
- The jury accepted Edgar's defence that he'd made 'an honest mistake'
- He was Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service chief between 2014 and 2018
- Birmingham Crown Court jury unanimously found Edgar not guilty on Friday
A former chief fire officer who used a third party to make a £500 winning bid on one of his own brigade's Land Rovers has been cleared of fraud.
Stewart Edgar, 53, the former head of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, was found not guilty on Friday of fraudulently selling a Land Rover Defender to a third-party company he was connected with.
It was alleged that Edgar purposely and dishonestly ensured a rival bid of £8,250 for the 2003-plate vehicle was rejected after telling a colleague he had always wanted a red Land Rover for his daughter's wedding.
After a week-long trial, a Birmingham Crown Court jury unanimously found Edgar not guilty on Friday, after hearing how he secured the 2003-plate vehicle, telling a colleague he had always wanted a red Land Rover for his daughter's wedding.
Former chief fire officer, Stewart Edgar, pictured outside Birmingham Crown Court on October 11. He was cleared of fraud on Friday after making £500 winning bid on one of his own brigade's Land Rovers in auction after using third party on his behalf
Birmingham Crown Court, where the jury cleared Edgar and accepted his defence that he had made 'an honest mistake'
Edgar, of Braehead Drive, Carnoustie, Angus, resigned from his £120,000-a-year post in 2018 just weeks after the sale came to light in an internal audit, triggering a council-led investigation.
Prosecutors had claimed the decorated fire chief, who was in line for an OBE before the investigation, had acted 'dishonestly'.
However, the jury, cleared Edgar and accepted his defence that he had made 'an honest mistake'.
Having taken on the leading role at the Gloucestershire brigade in 2014, he gave evidence that he was 'not in the right frame of mind' at the time, and suffering with his mental health, having later been diagnosed with depression.
On Thursday Edgar told the court that he 'didn't think it was wrong' at the time to place a winning bid in an auction he was running.
Robin Shellard, prosecuting, said in his closing speech: 'With power, comes responsibility.
'A responsibility to act honestly in your dealings with your employer and that's fundamental to the charge you will have to consider.
'We say Mr Edgar... failed in that regard, not through any dereliction but because of his fundamental dishonesty in relation to this transaction.'
The Defender was in mint condition for its age and had just 19,000 miles on the clock having been used by the brigade's water rescue team and latterly on loan to trading standards.
Edgar told the court he was advised by his fleet manager that the vehicle was only worth 'between £500 and £1,000', which was the thought process behind his offer at the auction.
Mr Shellard said it 'didn't take a rocket scientist to realise' Edgar's bid was low.
He added: 'The prosecution say he knew he should not have been bidding for this vehicle, through a third party, given his position regardless of whether it was a bid of £500 or £5,000.
'He had, we say, a clear financial responsibility towards this tender... and he set out to subvert it. The only bid he was accepting was his own bid and the excuse that the other bid was late so he had to reject it is just that - an excuse.
'We say, looking at evidence in this case, Mr Edgar is guilty of the charge.'
A spreadsheet created by the fleet manager, which was only disclosed to Edgar's defence team on Wednesday, showed several over brigade vehicles having been valued 'in that sort of bracket and below'.
However, the court heard evidence from a second potential buyer of the Land Rover, who was told his 'cheeky bid' of £8,250 had been rejected because Edgar claimed he had missed the deadline.
Edgar earlier told jurors he is on 'a lot of medication' for mental health issues connected with his long service as a firefighter.
After becoming head of the service in 2014, he said he was 'not in the right frame of mind' for the job at the time of the alleged incident and says he has since been diagnosed with depression.
Alistair Webster QC, defending, told jurors: 'Stuart Edgar is a man who has given much to this country - he's entitled to fair and open-minded consideration of this case and to say this.
'Look at me, I'm basically an honest hard-working, committed, driven man, who made - three-and-a-half years ago - an honest mistake when I wasn't well and under huge pressure.
'I'm not a fraudster - enough is enough.'
