A COUNCILLOR in Nottingham has deplorably been given a promotion, despite being convicted last year of driving dangerously, embarking on a campaign of harassment against his neighbours, and lying to police that a neighbour had chased him with a knife.
Tom Hollis harassed his two neighbours and falsely told police that one had chased him with a carving knife, leading to him being found guilty of multiple charges and having to pay his neighbours £1,000 in compensation.
Hollis also repeatedly accused his male neighbour of being a paedophile, including in front of the neighbour’s young daughter.
The harassment was so bad that the couple moved house, a court heard.
Nottingham Magistrates’ Court was told that Hollis started harassing the couple in May 2020, after the woman phoned 101 because she had seen people visit his house during lockdown.
Hollis also wrote to the couple using council headed notepaper, which prosecutor Mark Fielding described as being “an abuse of his position”, and sent an email “with quotes from the Bible”, despite being told not to communicate with them.
Mr Fielding said there was another “confrontation” on 16 May, when the male neighbour was mending a bicycle in his garden with his father, which Hollis “took exception to”.
“He called Mr Golding a paedophile in front of his six-year-old child,” said Mr Fielding.
“Mr Golding said he found it awful having to explain to his six-year-old child what a paedophile was, and presumably having to explain to the six-year-old child why Daddy wasn’t a paedophile.”
Hollis then called police and accused his neighbour of chasing him with a “one-and-a-half-foot carving knife” while “theatrically screaming”, said Mr Fielding.
“It was all a ploy to get Mr Golding arrested for knife crime,” said Mr Fielding.
Police arrived to arrest the neighbour, including one officer who was armed with a Taser.
“He [Hollis] calmed down when police arrived, and in his calmness he still insisted with the report that his neighbour had chased him with a carving knife,” said Mr Fielding.
However, Mrs Jones-Golding had filmed the incident on her mobile phone and was able to show that the allegation was false.
Mr Fielding said further incidents of harassment included the “erection of a wall to block access to the front of the Goldings’ house”, and “the parking of a caravan, albeit for 10 hours”.
In a victim personal statement read to the court, Mrs Jones-Golding said Hollis had “made our lives at home sometimes unbearable”, and her daughter had been too scared to play outside in the garden.
She said they had sold their house for £30,000 less than what it was worth to get away from Hollis.
“Your reaction to that complaint was completely out of proportion to what had been done,” District Judge Leo Pyle told Hollis.
“The reaction showed your arrogance and belief that you were somehow more important than your neighbours.
“There was clearly serious distress caused to both parents and daughter, and it did culminate in them having to move.”
The judge gave Hollis a 12-month community order with a requirement to do 200 hours of unpaid work in the community. He ordered Hollis to pay the couple £500 each, a victim surcharge of £95, and £1,000 towards the prosecution costs.
He also fined Hollis £570 for careless driving and gave him six penalty points, for an unrelated incident in which police pulled him over for speeding and he then reversed into a police car.
At the time of his campaign of vile campaign of hate, the Labour Councillor was also deputy leader of Ashfield District Council in Nottinghamshire but was removed from his position.
However, it appears that Labour simply removed him from the position, not for moral reasons or because they disapproved of his actions, but to wait until the situation blew over.
Following local elections on May 4, which saw Councillor Hollis being re-elected, the first full meeting of Ashfield District Council has now been held and the leadership team for the next four years has been confirmed.
The election saw the Ashfield Independents, of which Hollis is a member, increasing their majority, winning 32 of the 35 seats available.
“They need to change the laws regarding eligibility of candidates”, one angry resident told VoteWatch. “How can it be right that such a cretin, a convicted criminal, is allowed back to control our council?”
