An independent councillor in Nottinghamshire is on trial accused of defrauding the local authority by setting up a fake heritage society to siphon off council grant money, a court has heard. Jason Zadrozny, 46, allegedly named himself chairman of the Ashfield Heritage Society, an organisation prosecutors say "never existed and never did anything," before applying for council funds and withdrawing them in cash for his own use. The case matters because it centres on alleged abuse of a public-money scheme intended to support genuine community causes, raising questions about oversight of councillors' discretionary spending.

Prosecutors told Nottingham Crown Court that Zadrozny, first elected in 2007, opened an account for the fictitious society in February 2018 using a non-existent address, then days later applied for £7,500 from councillors' divisional funds, including £3,500 of his own allocation. He is also accused of taking money from a second, initially legitimate group, the Classic Cinema Club, and of failing to pay tax on rental income from properties he owned. Zadrozny denies 12 counts of fraud and four counts of fraudulent evasion of income tax, with the trial ongoing.