Council pays millions to former East Northants pub boss after wrongful prosecution ruined him

An East Northants pub landlord who lost everything when he was wrongly prosecuted by a council will be paid millions of pounds in damages.

Geoff Monks, now 67, was jailed in 2003 because he couldn't pay a fine after a flimsy prosecution over alleged food safety offences at his pub the Snooty Fox in Lowick.

His conviction was later overturned, but by then Dr Monks had been ruined by the catastrophic effect of East Northamptonshire Council's (ENC) actions. He lost his pubs, his house and suffered a heart attack.

Dr Monks launched a High Court action and claimed for up to £14m in damages after suing for 'abuse of process'.

ENC was abolished last year and replaced by North Northamptonshire Council (NNC).

NNC has now agreed a settlement with Dr Monks and the Northants Telegraph can reveal that, at an extraordinary council meeting last month which members of the public and press were excluded from, they agreed to offer £4m to him as a full and final settlement of all claims. They had been warned that their chances of success if the case went to trial was less than 50 per cent and a final bill if they lost could greatly exceed the settlement.

Dr Monks had begun the process against ENC in 2019 but it was kept secret from the public and even some councillors. The first time some councillors heard of the issue was when they were sent agenda papers for a council meeting.

NNC will also have to make a public apology, in open court, for its predecessor's actions. The costs NNC has agreed to pay Dr Monks will now be borne by taxpayers living across the whole of the north of the county and met from the council's reserves.

A bill of £4m would equate to about £35 per council tax-paying household. It is also just over two per cent of the council's expected council tax income of £178m for next year.

Geraint Thomas, partner and head of the disputes team at Laytons ETL Global which represented Dr Monks, said: “This settlement finally provides full vindication for our client more than 20 years after East Northamptonshire Council began its abusive campaign against him. The impact on his health, finances and wellbeing has been nothing short of devastating, but I hope that today’s settlement will enable him at least to begin to rebuild his life."

The case is just the third time in English legal history that a claimant has successfully sued for 'abuse of process'. One was in 1838 and the second, and last, was in 1861.

Dr Monks' ordeal began in 1998 after ENC investigated the Snooty Fox when a customer told them they suffered food poisoning and had eaten there.

ENC then prosecuted Dr Monks on a number of charges, including over a non-existent piece of mouldy ham.

He was convicted in relation to the Snooty Fox in 2000 and was ordered to pay a fine of £13,500 and costs of £8,300. In 2003, when he was unable to pay the fine, Dr Monks was sent to category A prison HMP Woodhill, where he was placed in an adjacent cell to the Soham murderer Ian Huntley, who was at the time awaiting trial.

Separately, East Northamptonshire Council also prosecuted Dr Monks for food safety offences at his two other pubs, the Samuel Pepys at Slipton and the Vane Arms at Sudborough.

He was initially convicted in relation to the Samuel Pepys but, in 2003, appealed successfully against that conviction. The prosecution relating to the Vane Arms was then stayed, on the grounds that both prosecutions were abuses of process.

The Snooty Fox conviction stood, however, until it was finally overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2015 following a referral from the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

The effect of the prosecutions, and the surrounding publicity, on Dr Monks’ businesses was catastrophic and he was forced to sell all three pubs at a loss, and also lost his home. He suffered a heart attack while in prison and has experienced serious health issues ever since.

Dr Monks, who was financially ruined by the actions of ENC, was unable to afford to pursue a claim against the council until he secured funding from Sparkle Capital Limited and legal insurance from Acasta Europe in 2019, enabling him to commence action in the High Court.

In a case note after the settlement, Dr Monks' barrister Paul Mitchell QC said: "Dr Monks’ claim against the now-defunct East Northamptonshire Council was not a case of extortion, but one either of vendetta or of capricious indifference to the council’s own policy governing when it was to prosecute Food Safety Act offences. Dr Monks was a publican, prosecuted three times by ENC for alleged food hygiene offences.

"The evidence against him on each occasion was thin and contradictory. He achieved the remarkable distinction of being the defendant to three of only a handful of food safety prosecutions the council had undertaken between 1990 and 2001, during which period it had carried out over 7,000 investigations."

Cllr Jason Smithers, leader of North Northamptonshire Council, said: “East Northamptonshire Council’s decision to prosecute Dr Monks in relation to the Snooty Fox was an abuse of process and should never have occurred.

“It is accepted that East Northamptonshire Council’s actions caused serious personal injury, loss, and damage to him over a period of more than 20 years, and I sincerely apologise for those actions.

“I hope that Dr Monks is able to have his reputation restored and that the substantial damages which the council has agreed to pay to him go some way towards assisting him to move forward with his life.”

Northamptonshire Police confirmed they were investigating whether any criminal offences had been committed in Dr Monks' wrongful prosecution.