HEADLINES:
Mayor of Camden is quizzed over disability benefits fraud claims Benedict Moore-Bridger
26.01.10 26.01.10
The mayor of a London borough has been arrested over allegations of benefit fraud.
Camden mayor Faruque Ansari was frogmarched from the town hall by police yesterday lunchtime following claims that he was falsely claiming disability benefits.
Mr Ansari, 55, was questioned for four hours at Holborn police station before being released on bail.
The mayor receives £474 a month in disability benefit arising from complications following an operation on his neck in 1995.
He also claimed incapacity benefit until it was stopped in 2006 when he became a councillor.
Mr Ansari today said he was confident of being exonerated. He told the Standard: I am registered disabled. I am getting disability benefits, which is true. Somebody made an allegation that I am committing fraud. It is just an allegation. Nothing has been proved.
Mr Ansari, who is diabetic and has had a heart bypass, said he did not know who made the allegation. It is a very political thing. When you are mayor of Camden, you are a very trusting figure. Someone is trying to smear me.
He said police had some details of his medical conditions, but they were four or five years old. He said: So they thought I might have got better and had given wrong information. But, when they looked at me, they knew I was telling the truth. I've never even had a parking ticket in my life, so this is very distressing.
Mr Ansari said his neck operation was for injuries he sustained as a freedom fighter battling for the independence of Bangladesh against the Pakistani army in the Seventies.
The mayor, who claimed to have been in command of up to 300 men, said he sustained eight cracked discs in his neck, which were not treated sufficiently at the time.
Mr Ansari came to Britain in 1960 and joined Camden council's Liberal Democrats in 2006.
A spokesman for Camden council said no disciplinary action had been taken, adding: No information would suggest that the allegations are connected with Mr Ansari's work on the council At this stage, these are merely allegations.
A spokesman for the Met police said: We can confirm a 55-year-old man was arrested and taken into custody at a central London police station. He was later bailed to return on a date in March.
File photo of Camden Town Hall, where the mayor was arrested yesterday. 

The mayor of the London Borough of Camden, England, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of benefit fraud.  Omar Faruque Ansari was taken from Camden Town Hall by police to Holborn police station over allegations that he was wrongfully claiming disability benefits. After four hours of questioning, he was released on bail to return in March.

Today, Ansar said that he was sure that he would be cleared of any wrongdoing.  "It is a very political thing. When you are mayor of Camden, you are a very trusting figure. Someone is trying to smear me", he added.  He is reported to receive £474 (about US$765) per month in disability benefits, after complications following a neck operation in 1995 – this was needed for injuries he received fighting for Bangladesh against Pakistan in the 1970s, he explained. "I've never even had a parking ticket in my life, so this is very distressing", he commented.

The allegations appear to be unrelated to the mayor's council work, a spokesman for Camden said. He refused to comment further on "allegations relating to the personal lives of the council's members".

Ansari, 55, moved to the UK in 1960 and has been mayor of Camden since May 2009, after joining the Liberal Democrats in 2006.  He has been suspended as mayor and from the Liberal Democrat group while the investigation is ongoing.