Neil Wilby Media

A Kirklees councillor, Fazila Loonat, 43, and her partner have been jailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice over a speeding offence.

In 2020, Afshin Amini, 34, was captured driving her car on Huddersfield Road, Dewsbury at 39mph on a section of that road where the limit is 30mph. A notice of intended prosecution was sent to her address but she returned the forms naming a fictitious driver.

At Bradford Crown Court this week, the Labour councillor, who represents the Batley East ward, was jailed for 14 weeks and Amini for 12 weeks.

The court heard police had been unable to locate the alleged driver of the Mercedes given on the documents returned to them by Cllr Loonat. Officers said further checks found the address given on the forms was shop premises owned by 34-year-old Amini, which had no accommodation space.

Crown Prosecutor, Nadim Bashir, told the court that a further warning letter had been sent to Cllr Loonat asking her to re-consider, but she again submitted false details.

The court also heard that Loonat had posted an advert on eBay offering the Mercedes for sale after the speeding offence, but said this had been clearly done to support their claim the car had been on a test drive when it triggered a speed camera.

Mr Bashir added that police had visited her home in Church Walk, Staincliffe, and gave her a “final opportunity” to provide the correct details, but she refused.

Cllr Loonat eventually pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in March, 2023. She was heavily pregnant at the time of the speeding offence,

Recorder Benjamin Nolan KC, sentencing the couple, told the court that in his view they were equally culpable and concluded that immediate prison sentences for both were appropriate. He said the couple had offered total resistance to a number of warnings and said the car sale advert was a sham. Adding that there had been a “prolonged and sustained attempt” to pervert the course of justice.

Jayne Beckett, counsel for Cllr Loonat, said she was terrified of prison. “She’s very tearful today and obviously distressed for her children (aged 22, 13 and 3 years old). This is a really huge and very sad fall from grace.”

The court heard that Cllr Loonat had previously faced “backlash” in her community due to her views on the LGBT+ community, and Ms Beckett added that she had been a friend of murdered MP Jo Cox and had been campaigning in the area the day of her murder.

Counsel for Amini, Susannah Proctor, said her client was also frightened at the prospect of going to prison and had expressed genuine remorse. She added that he had played a lesser role and was not the prime mover in the perverting justice.

Amini’s shorter jail term reflected his early guilty plea, at an earlier court hearing in November, 2022. Both Amini and Cllr Loonat will serve half of their sentences in custody before being released on licence.

A Kirklees Council spokesperson said: “Given the right of appeal, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

Cllr Loonat has, however, been suspended by the Labour Party. She is also a supporter of Momentum, a grassroots left-wing political organisation founded in 2015. It emerged from Jeremy Corbyn’s successful campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party and has been closely aligned with his political ideology.

In 2018, the Labour councillor came under scrutiny in an opinion piece by columnist, Danny Lockwood, for local newspaper The Press.

Mr Lockwood wrote: “In my opinion, Batley East councillor Fazila Loonat is a dangerous and divisive extremist. She’s a leading member of an anti-British, communist group that is riddled with anti-semitic racists.

“[Cllr] Loonat is a leading local light of the fascist-style group Momentum, which is built on the ‘politics’ of bullying and coercion, of silencing opposition and festering hate amongst British communities.”

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Page last updated: Friday 7th July, 2023 at 08h15

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