Ex-UUP man on theft charges

Alastair Patterson is a former UUP chief executive

A former chief executive of the Ulster Unionist Party has been in court in Omagh on 30 charges of theft and false accounting.

Alastair Patterson was charged with stealing £230 from the electoral office of Northern Ireland in December 2000, and 16 other similar offences of theft.

He is also accused of 13 offences of falsifying electoral office receipts.

The charges relate to his former employment as a deputy electoral officer.

Mr Patterson of Parkanaur Road, Castlecaulfield, near Dungannon, spoke only to confirm his name.

A detective sergeant told the court that when accused of the offences in October this year, Mr Patterson replied: "No answer" to each charge.

A defence solicitor told the court the sums of money involved were modest and that Mr Patterson had paid all of it back.

He said there was no issue affecting the integrity of the electoral process itself.

Before he was the UUP's chief executive, Mr Patterson was best known as the returning officer who declared IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands's victory in the Fermanagh-South Tyrone Westminster election in 1981.

He is to appear in court again next month.