Court officials on fraud charges

Three court officials charged in connection with a £19,000 fraud have appeared before magistrates.

Chief clerk Stephen Rowbottom, 49, ex-deputy clerk Edmond Cleary, 50, and principal administration manager Pamela Davison, 54, worked in Sunderland.

They are each charged with misconduct in a public office and were suspended from their jobs in March.

They were bailed to appear at London's Southwark Crown Court on 9 January by City of Westminster magistrates.

Wilful neglect

Mr Rowbottom, of Morpeth, Northumberland; Mr Cleary, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, and Ms Davison, of Murton, County Durham, are charged in connection with an undeclared Bradford & Bingley account.

Ms Davison also faces another count of misconduct in a public office, one of false accounting and three counts of furnishing false information.

The charges relate to activity between April 2001 and November 2005.

Mr Rowbottom took over as chief clerk to the justices more than five years ago and Mr Cleary has advised Sunderland magistrates since the early 1990s.

Crown Prosecution guidelines for magistrates say the misconduct in a public office charge refers to public officers who wilfully neglect to perform their duty or wilfully misconduct themselves, amounting to an abuse of the public's trust.

Police said the three would not appear at a court in the north-east of England due to the nature of their jobs.