Ex-Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson and former politician Derek Hatton have been charged with bribery and misconduct over council contracts.
They are among 12 people charged with the offences, Merseyside Police said.
The force said the charges come ‘following an extensive investigation (Operation Aloft) connected to the awarding of commercial and business contracts from Liverpool City Council between 2010 and 2020’.
Today, Anderson’s son David Anderson, Andrew Barr, formerly the council’s assistant director of highways and planning and the council’s former head of regeneration Nick Kavanagh have also been charged with offences relating to the investigation.
All those charged range in age between 29 and 77, and they will all appear at Preston Magistrates’ Court on March 28.
Joe Anderson became the first directly elected mayor of Liverpool in 2012, and served until 2020.
Veteran Labour politician Anderson resigned from his £80,000 post as Liverpool’s first elected mayor in 2020 after being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery as part of the police probe.
Anderson, who had led Liverpool City Council since 2010, initially resisted calls to resign, despite being suspended by the Labour Party while the investigation is going on.
At the time he insisted ‘time will make it clear’ that he is innocent.
Joseph Anderson was born in 1958 in Liverpool to a cleaner and a Merchant Navy officer.
He joined the Merchant Navy after leaving school and then went onto work for P&O Ferries.
He went to Liverpool John Moores University and got a post-grad diploma in social work. He went onto be a social worker in Crosby.
He became a councillor in 1998 and, in 2003, became the Leader of the Labour Group on Liverpool City Council.
He became council leader in 2010 and then was elected Mayor in 2012.
Mr Anderson stood to become the Labour candidate for metro mayor of the wider Liverpool City Region in 2016 but was beaten by the then Walton MP Steve Rotheram.
Hatton, the Trotskyist former deputy council leader and far-Left Militant group member, was questioned at the same time.
Ministers subsequently sent in Whitehall-appointed commissioners to run Liverpool council’s roads, planning, property and regeneration departments after inspectors uncovered a culture of bullying, avoidance of rules and money being wasted on improperly awarded contracts.
Merseyside police began an investigation into the awarding of building and regeneration contracts by the city council to developers in 2019.
Their inquiries are understood to have focused on several council-owned sites in the city, allegedly sold on an ‘improperly preferential basis’ to developers.
Robin Weyell, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor said: ‘The CPS has reviewed a full file of evidence from the Merseyside Police and has authorised the investigation team to charge 12 people with 12 offences related to bribery and misconduct in public office.
‘The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against these defendants are now active and that they have a right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.’
In full, those charged are:
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.