Aberdeen City Council’s chief executive ordered an investigation into claims that a senior solicitor “lied” in court during an appeal hearing for a local nightclub.
Angela Scott launched the internal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the case involving the Pearl Lounge, owned by the city-based Epic Group.
The dispute surrounds a decision to suspend the licence of the Dee Street club in October 2012, which was later overturned on appeal after a hearing at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in December the same year.
Sheriff Principal Derek Pyle delivered a damning judgment on the conduct of the licensing board in February last year. He found a legal submission made to the appeal hearing was false.
Sheriff Pyle found that the court had been “misled” when the board denied that Councillor Muriel Jaffrey had fallen asleep during the initial hearing.
He further added that city council solicitor Charles Smith had “manfully trying to defend the indefensible” when first questioned in court, but later admitted the error.
Sheriff Pyle did not recommend in his judgment any criminal charges should be brought.
But the board was found liable for legal expenses incurred by the Epic Group, meaning the city council had to pick up the tab of more than £18,000.
Since then, the Epic Group has called on the local authority to provide answers as to who instructed Mr Smith to produce false information to the court, and which budget the legal expenses were paid from.
Mike Wilson, chief executive of the Epic Group, which also owns city bars Prohibition, the Monkey House and the Priory, said: “At the end of the day, it is in everyone’s interest, not just mine, to get to the bottom of what has happened here.
“The council has already paid out expenses, but which council budget is it coming from?
“If someone has lied, why are the citizens of Aberdeen picking up the tab? And why is that person still in office?”
An Aberdeen City Council spokesman confirmed that the investigation, requested by the chief executive, has recently been completed.
A senior official at the authority would be writing to Mr Wilson soon, he added.
It is not known what action, if any, has been taken.
Last night, Aberdeen Central MSP Kevin Stewart said: “These are very serious allegations and I think that the public has the right to know the findings of the investigation that was initiated by the chief executive.
“After all, public money has had to be spent in terms of paying for the mistakes that have been made.”