Calls for stringent checks on Leeds City Council grants after swindling sisters audit

The authority looked into the donations given to disgraced Girl Guide and youth group leader Jean Barnbrook, who, along with her sister, was jailed last year for a large-scale Grant Aid scam worth almost half-a-million pounds.

The audit was undertaken at the request of Councillor Mark Dobson and it was found that £56,000 of public money was awarded to the sisters between 20018 and 2024.

And part of the audit concluded there was “insufficient evidence” that all of that money was used for the purpose it was intended, although Leeds City Council says the audit needs to be “considered in full context”.

Coun Dobson, leader of Garforth & Swillington Independents, is now calling for a clampdown on such spending with tighter checks introduced.

He said: “Some years ago I had significant concerns regarding this person‘s [Jean Barnbrook’s] motivations and behaviour and took them to a very senior member of the council but was told there was nothing to see.

“Well, clearly, there was something to see and despite my groups reservations the council continued to award significant sums of money, and civic awards, upon this person for several more years, up to and including 2024, a period when, presumably, she was under police investigation for significant criminal activity.

“In 2017 she left her local guide group under a cloud and a change.org petition was started for her reinstatement. Alarm bells should have rung at that stage.

“Instead, she founded a new group which the council continued to shower public money upon. The council claims to have a budget deficit of £104 million.

“If they are serious about protecting public money and framing robust budgets, independent councillors need assurances this sort of thing never happens again.

“Council officers should have the confidence and ability to question such profligate spending on one single group, working in a single area of the city, and should have the ability to push back on those elected members of council who thought any of this was a good idea.”

In response, a Leeds City Council spokesperson said: “The audit found that the council’s grant funding controls were appropriate and proportionate, given that resource is focused on providing assurance in areas of highest risk. For smaller grants, full documentary evidence is not always required and retrospective assurances may not always be possible.

“A number of payments made to organisations linked to Jean Barnbrook before 2017/18 could not be accounted for during the sample testing carried out, as they fall outside the agreed data retention period which is in place to meet the requirements of data protection legislation.

“Providing full assurance on all council funding would require a full audit of recipient organisations' accounts, which falls outside our remit. We do not have direct access to the financial records of third-sector organisations, and in this case, the original associated youth group has since closed.”

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The Barnbrook sisters, of Laurel Terrace, Leeds, ran three units of Girl Guides and Brownies in the Cross Gates area.

Between 2013 and 2019 they falsely declared that parents had generously donated almost £2 million, and as a result they received the £482,294 in Gift Aid - a scheme that allows charities to claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated by a taxpayer.

They then siphoned the cash into their own accounts and splashed out on luxury items, hotels, clothing, travel, home improvements and paying off personal loans.

Sara Barnbrook, 54, was jailed for three years and Jean, 52, was jailed for 30 months.

Jean has since been stripped of the two Leeds City Council volunteer awards she received in recent years.