By Phil Coleman

Last updated at 20:37, Thursday, 19 November 2009

A FORMER Liberal Democrat councillor has received one of the longest jail sentences ever handed down in Carlisle for failing to pay her council tax.

Jailed: Former Lib Dem councillor Sharon Irwin

Sharon Irwin, 53, who was once a Castle ward Carlisle city councillor, is today beginning a 90-day jail term after magistrates deemed her guilty of “culpable neglect”.

The court was told that Irwin currently owes £1,145 in unpaid council tax.

She stood down as a city councillor in 2001, saying she could no longer continue for health reasons.

After the case was concluded yesterday, city council officials defended their tough stance on dodgers, saying allowing people to avoid payments would be unfair on the majority of residents who do pay up.

Irwin’s 90-day sentence is the maximum available to magistrates for persons who willfully fail to pay up. Previously, the longest term known to have been imposed by magistrates for evading the tax was 88 days.

A spokeswoman for the city council said: “We have a responsibility to all our taxpayers to collect as much council tax as we can, as it pays towards local services for the benefit of all our communities.

“We only take court action as a last resort and only after we have exhausted all other methods of collection.

“We provide as much support and advice as we can to anyone struggling to pay their council tax.”

The jail sentence completes a humiliating fall from grace for Irwin, who appeared in court twice in the year after she stepped down from her councillor role. In 2002, she was taken to court for failing to pay a £600 council tax debt.

That court appearance came eight months after she was prosecuted for stealing nearly £3,000 from her dead mother’s annuity policy to buy alcohol. For that, she was sentenced to 180 hours community service.

The court was told she drank because she was depressed after her mother’s death in August 1995.

Formerly of Tait Street, Irwin has in recent months given her address in court as Newtown Close, Carlisle.

The city council has what it regards as a good record for collecting council tax. Over the last two years, it has successfully collected 97.31 per cent of the council tax it was owed by residents in just under 50,000 properties.

PColeman@cngroup.co.uk

First published at 11:39, Thursday, 19 November 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk