A former city councillor in Stoke-on-Trent is beginning an 18-month jail sentence for fraud and corruption offences.

Ian Sharman, who was a Labour councillor in the early 1990s, was convicted at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester on charges relating to a building project in which he was involved.

He admitted 17 charges of fraud and was found guilty of corruptly accepting a £200 bribe from a builder, but cleared of taking others worth £12,000. He was also convicted of theft and furnishing false information.

The 49-year-old had already served a four-month jail sentence in 1993 for stealing from a charity of which he was trustee while a councillor in Stoke.

Missing money

On his release, Sharman moved to Greater Manchester and later became chairman of the Heywood and Middleton Labour Party constituency near Rochdale.

He became a property developer, and was appointed manager of a lottery-funded project to renovate the 16th Century Grammar School in Middleton.

Police officers began investigating Sharman's work on the scheme after a party colleague raised concerns about missing funds.

Customs officers also discovered he had taken up to £70,000 in falsely claimed VAT invoices.

Sharman was suspended from his post as constituency chairman after his arrest, and is no longer a member of the Labour party.