Cat-swinging ex-Bradford councillor back in jail over £91,000 fraud

Robert Payne, 38, formerly a Conservative councillor in the Keighley West ward, was sentenced yesterday at Bradford Crown Court for three offences of fraud and three of acting as a company director while banned. He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Payne, now of Blackpool, set up sham companies in order to cheat the public purse.

The court was told he had been treated for depression and had now turned his life around by giving up alcohol and carrying out charity work.

Judge Peter Benson jailed him for two years and banned him from acting as a company director for six years.

In 2011 Payne was in the headlines when he was jailed for five months for animal cruelty.

He had killed four pet kittens by swinging them round at his then home in Ethel Street, Keighley.